Back from the Past
by Marcus S. Lazarus
Summary: When Angel interrupts a demon's spell, a past version of Buffy, from shortly after Angel was sent to Hell, is pulled into the future. But as old foes return, including Angelus and Dark Willow, can even the reunited lovers save the world this time?
1. His Girl

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Angel, or any associated characters; I just own this plot. Oh, and the villain.  
  
Feedback: I wouldn't mind it in the least.

AN: When this story starts, it's set immediately after Buffy's sent Angel to Hell and is running away to LA. When it goes into the future, I'm setting it after 'Why we Fight'; so, Fred's still Fred (But she and Wesley aren't together), Gunn's legal powers seem to be failing, and Lindsay is currently stuck in a hell dimension after trying to kill Angel.

A Buffy from the Past

_Sunnydale outskirts, 1998_

Buffy stared listlessly out of the bus window as the countryside passed her by. The view was remarkable, in its own way, but she didn't care about that right now.

All she could think about was Angel.

Specifically, the look on his face when he'd fallen into Hell.

She couldn't get it out of her mind. Just as she'd finally gotten him back, after almost six months of having to fight the demon that wore his face, the demon that had terrorised most of Europe in his time, just after she'd kissed him so tenderly, just after he'd told her he loved her...

She drove a sword through his heart to save the world.

She still couldn't quite understand it. Why had Xander not told her that Willow was trying the curse again? Why? Didn't he know... didn't he _care_...

Buffy broke off that train of thought. It wouldn't get her anywhere. All she needed was to get away from Sunnydale... Get away from everything that reminded her of Angel.

She had to make a new life for herself.

She had to get away from everything that would remind her of the fact that Angel was gone forever.

And she...

She stopped herself there. _No, I can't_, she thought to herself. _I can't move on. I'll _never _move on._

She'd never be the same girl she had been before last night after this.

But one thing would never change about her.

She would always be Angel's girl...

* * *

_Los Angeles, Six years later..._

Angel groaned as he stared at the files in front of him. He was really starting to find this job tedious; the paperwork was boring, he barely got out on the streets anymore, and as for some of his clients...

There were times he felt like handing in his resignation.

But, in the end, he was still doing some good; he had to acknowledge that. It just wasn't the kind of good he was used to.

"Angel?" a voice said from the door of his office.

Glancing back, Angel saw Harmony walk in holding a file, and groaned silently. He was trying to tolerate Harmony's presence, and he knew that she was, at least, _trying _to fit in- the fact that she'd risked everything to keep that demon conference under control spoke in her favour, if nothing else- but he still couldn't forget that, when she'd first arrived in LA, she'd tried to sell him and the others out to a vampire cult.

He never thought he'd say this, but he actually trusted _Spike _more than her these days; at least Spike wasn't exactly the same person who'd tortured him for the Gem of Amara in his first year in LA, thanks to his soul and that chip that had been in his head. Harmony... she was still the same person, even if she was trying to get over her past problems.

Shaking off that line of thought, he turned around to face Harmony completely, his expression as neutral as it had been when he first arrived in LA.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Just thought you should know, we've detected something... powerful, for lack of anything more specific... in the region of a university that Lorne tells me you and he visited once," Harmony said, passing Angel the file.

Angel took the file, his curiosity spiked instantly. He recalled the visit to the university that Lorne was referring to- the affair with the Lubber demons was one he was unlikely to ever forget. Although the experience with Darla had played its part, Angel also owed Lorne a great deal for helping him get out of his descent into darkness with that mission.

He scanned the file, noting the contents with a dread that grew and grew as he read on. It would appear that, even though he and Lorne had stopped Gene Rainy from freezing time throughout the world, the lab where he'd carried out his experiments was now the source of a slight tear in the fabric of reality, making it an obvious target for any demons attempting a spell to do with time.

And, if this information was accurate, someone was trying to do just that...

Angel glanced up at Harmony.

"Get Spike and Lorne," he said, putting the file down and standing up. "Tell them to meet me at the car as soon as possible."

"Check," Harmony said, as Angel swept past her and headed for the lift that led down to the garage.

* * *

"OK, I get what tall, fair and loony is doing here," Lorne said, indicating Spike as the two of them headed towards the university with Angel, "But what am I doing here? Why didn't you bring Gunn or Wesley?"  
  
Angel glanced back at Lorne. "You've got an advantage over the others in that you already know the scale of the situation we might be facing," he explained. "Besides, if nothing else, your high notes might give Spike and me a better chance in a fight against superior numbers."

"Yeah, just so long as we don't forget about the bloody earplugs," Spike grumbled from the back seat. "I still don't get what the bloody problem is; I mean, you've got some guys trying to tap into the fabric of time? What makes you think they'll even succeed?"

"They're calling on Tempus," Angel stated simply.

Spike glanced up, his expression having gone from boredom to fear.

"Tempus?" he asked, shaken.

Angel nodded. "The one and only."

Spike swore. Even lower-level demons knew something about Tempus, a pure- blood demon who was said to be capable of resetting time and manipulating it for his own ends. The only catch was that you had to give him something in exchange, otherwise he'd work in some annoying little problem is the new history that you wouldn't appreciate, which led to all sorts of problems.

Wolfram & Hart had never called on Tempus themselves, but they had detailed information on him, which included the last time he'd been called upon; by the Charmed Ones, three powerful witches destined to protect the world from evil. They'd required Tempus' aid after they'd been exposed on live TV, but he'd only helped them when one of them had agreed to go to the underworld. Fortunately, she'd been pulled out of Hell by her half-demon boyfriend, and, as punishment, Tempus had changed history so one of the other sisters had died.

If it hadn't been for the discovery of an unknown half-sister, the Charmed Ones would have ended then and there.

Angel wouldn't allow something like Tempus to be called upon if he could help it.

"We're here," he said, stopping the car in front of the university. It was still sunny outside, but the car was parked in the shade of the university, so he and Spike would be all right getting into the building.

He pulled out a sword from under his seat and slipped it under his coat. Glancing back, he saw Spike grab a couple of daggers, and Lorne grabbed a crossbow from the seat behind him.

"OK, remember the plan," Angel said, looking around at his friends. "We go in there, head for the basement under Gene's old lab, take out whoever's performing the spell, and leave. We don't have the time for explanations to any civilians, and we can worry about what they were trying to pull off later. Is that clear?"

"Crystal," Lorne smiled.

"Got it, Peaches," Spike nodded.

"Good," Angel said, as he opened his door. "Let's go."

* * *

The three of them jumped out the car and ran towards the nearest door, which was a small side door normally used by the university cleaning staff that led to the basement. It wasn't used that often, which was why their current target was using it; any demons trying something on this floor wouldn't be disturbed by a curious human who'd seen something interesting.

Angel kicked the door open and walked in, Spike and Lorne immediately behind him. Lorne shut the door as well as he could, and then followed on after the two vampires, looking around himself as he did so. Although there were lights down here, they weren't on; either the demons they were tracking had night vision, or they had bought their own lighting source with them.

Either way, Lorne was grateful that vampires had excellent night visions; he'd never have managed to find his way around here by himself.

"This way," Angel whispered, turning to the left and walking deeper into the darkness...

Except now it _wasn't _dark; at least, not totally. There was a dim golden glow down at the end of the corridor they were currently walking down, apparently coming from a door off to one side.

Spike looked around at Lorne and Angel. "That it?" he asked them.

Angel nodded. "That's it," he said. He looked over at the other two. "Spike, get your earplugs in. Lorne, as soon as they see us, hit them with your high-pitched scream. Once they're down, Spike and I'll handle the demons; you see if you can find what's causing the distortions and put a stop to it. If you can't, just hold them down until Spike or I get there, OK?"

The two of them nodded in confirmation. They turned back to face the door, Angel and Spike slipping their earplugs in as they did so. Slowly walking towards the door, the three of them leaned forward to see inside.

The creatures in the room, it turned out, weren't that threatening. Their apparent opponents for the night consisted of four vampires and one demon, and only the demon might be any real threat; Angel, Spike and Lorne knew they could handle vampires easily enough if the need arose.

It was the demon that was the real problem. It was wearing a long, ornately-patterned red robe, and was covered in scales of a similar colour. Its hands and face were the only parts of it that weren't covered by the robe, and they didn't look all that pleasant.

Its head was thin and high, reminding the three people looking at it of Christopher Lee as Count Dooku, except for its long, pointed nose and ears, and its mouth full of long sharp pointed teeth. Its hands appeared vaguely human, baring the creature's scales and its long black nails.

In its left hand, it was holding a long wooden staff with a golden serpent wrapped around it, reminding Angel of some wizard's staffs he'd seen in the _Lord of the Rings_ films. However, the thing in the creature's right hand was of more immediate interest to the observers; it was a large cup, tipped up to pour its contents onto a large symbol carved into a stone circle in front of the demon. Angel didn't recognise the symbol, but he was prepared it couldn't be for anything good.

Then he caught the scent of the liquid in the cup, and he became even more convinced that the demon was up to no good.

It was human blood in that cup.

Angel glanced over at Lorne, and jerked his thumb towards the vampires.

Nodding, Lorne stepped forward, his crossbow raised in front of him. As the vampires turned towards him, Lorne opened his mouth, and (Angel and Spike assumed) let out his trademark high note; the only offensive capability he had.

Instantly, the other vampires bent over double, clutching their ears in agony. The demon apparently tried to fight off the effects, but failed; not only did he mimic the vampires by falling over in pain, but his instinctive reaction to the pain included him clenching his hands, which crushed the cup in his right hand and spilled the blood that had been in it all over the symbol.

Lorne stopped screaming, pointed his crossbow at the nearest vampire, and fired. He struck it directly in the heart, and it had turned to dust in a few seconds.

As soon as the first vampire was down, Angel and Spike ran into the room, the three of them tackling one vampire each. Meanwhile, the demon stared at the blood trickling through the stone symbol, apparently too horrified at what had happened to focus on his attackers.

Then again, it would appear he hadn't been anticipating much resistance while performing the spell; the vampires appeared to be freshly sired, and Angel and Spike managed to dispatch with relative ease. Spike stabbed the first one in the heart fairly soon after the fight had started, and Angel followed up with a swordblow that cleanly severed his opponent's neck. As for Lorne, his opponent was still dazed by the hypersonic scream, so all he had to do was take an arrow from his crossbow and drive it through the creature's heart.

It wasn't even really a fight.

* * *

Angel glanced over at Spike, his expression a silent apology for bringing the pale-haired vampire here; he knew how much Spike enjoyed a good fight, and he hadn't had the chance to get involved in one lately.

Spike noticed the expression on his grandsire's face, and shook his head reassuringly; he didn't mind about the shortness of the fight, just that he'd had a fight.

Lorne tapped them both on the shoulder and indicated the robed demon kneeling on the ground behind them. Realising what he meant, the vampires pulled out the earplugs and walked over to stand behind the demon, Lorne standing a foot or two behind them.

"So, red, now that your henchmen have snuffed it, care to fill us in on what the point was behind all this?" Spike asked, beating Angel to the question.

The demon turned to look at the three people behind him, as though he'd only just realised they were still there.

"You..." he half-whispered as he looked at them. "The vampires with souls, and the Anagogic demon. I was wondering if you'd show up in time... After all, you both have a personal motive in preventing this plan." One corner of his mouth turned up in a smile. "Well, more personal than most, anyway."

"What?" Angel asked, looking at the demon. "What are you talking about?"

"Look at the stone," the demon said simply, standing up and stepping to one side.

Angel glanced over at Spike. "Keep him covered," he said, indicating the demon. "If he tries anything, I want you to cut his throat."

"Naturally," Spike said, pulling his daggers out and walking to stand facing the demon. No matter how fast it was in a fight, Spike would still get in a strike or two before it got past him.

Leaning forward, Angel looked at the stone in front of him...

And stared in surprise at the sight.

Although the liquid in the stone carving still smelled the same to Angel- the rich, tantalising smell of human blood, a temptation he'd resisted for so long- the actual liquid had completely changed. It was no longer red; now it was transparent, and appeared to be showing a picture that he couldn't quite make out. If he squinted, however, he could just make out what appeared to be a bus, the picture focusing on a young blonde-haired woman in one seat...

Then a brilliant light burst from the stone, hitting Angel directly in the eyes, knocking him back from the sheer shock of it. Lorne and Spike took the light to their eyes as well, but the demon didn't even appear to notice the light.

"NO!" he yelled, as a large golden portal began to form above the stone. "You've RUINED everything! It's TOO EARLY!"

"Too early for what?!" Angel cried over the sound of the portal. "Would you mind explaining what the hell we just did?!"

"It's too late!" the demon cried, sounding like it was almost laughing now. "No matter what happens now, you're _finished_!"

A loud whooshing sound was heard over the portal, and suddenly the demon was gone.

As soon as he vanished, something flew out of the portal and landed on top of Angel, just before the portal closed.

Looking at the something that had fallen on top of him, Angel realised that it was in fact a some_one_; the blonde-haired woman he'd vaguely seen in the stone carving through the blood, holding her head as though she had a headache. She was wearing a black top with elbow-length sleeves, black trousers and boots, and...

Angel's breath stopped as he saw the necklace hanging down below her head, just in front of her breasts.

A crucifix.

A crucifix he recognised.

Now that he thought about it, he recognised the outfit she was wearing, too...

"Buffy?"

* * *

Buffy blinked a little as the light died down, her right hand to her forehead as she desperately blinked her eyes, trying to get her sight back.

What had just happened? One minute she was on a bus, heading out of Sunnydale for L.A., then a brilliant light had surrounded her, and now she was lying on top of a man dressed in black trousers, a dark blue shirt, a black leather duster...

"Buffy?"

Her heart stopped.

No... It couldn't be him... She'd seen him fall into Hell, staked by her hand, only a few hours before...

She looked up, and there he was.

The love of her life... lying beneath her.

As alive as a vampire could ever be.

"Angel?" she whispered, unable to believe what she was seeing.


	2. The TimeLost Slayer

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Angel, or any associated characters; I just own this plot. Oh, and the villain.  
  
Feedback: I wouldn't mind it in the least.

**Sean Malloy-1:** This soon enough?

**Kaudrim:** Thanks for saying I've got this off to a good start; I hope the rest of it remains as good.

**Grace:** Thanks for saying you liked the idea; I was a little uncertain about it myself. Hope you enjoy the rest of it!

**CF:** Glad to hear I'm doing a popular idea; could you tell me where I could find a couple of other stories like this?

**Slayerchick33:** Thanks for the compliment; hope I didn't keep you waiting.

**a2zmom:** I was trying for that.

**Ellie:** Oh, I will, I assure you of that.

**Melanie:** Oh, they will meet, but it won't be for a while yet; there's a LOT of stuff to find out first...

**m:** Thanks for the compliment; there will be. Oh, and I agree with your final statement.

**charisma:** I will, I assure you of that. Oh, and you think it's good so far? Wait until you see what else the bad guys are going to be trying....

**Selfee:** There is a GREAT deal more to come, I assure of that. And regarding the Angel thing... well, I can't make any promises, OK? Don't forget; there's still the issue of the clause hanging over them.

A Buffy from the Past

"Angel..." Buffy whispered, staring at the beautiful face in front of her. "Oh my god... _Angel_?!"

She couldn't stop herself. She crossed the few inches between them and pressed her lips on his. They were as cold as ever, and didn't respond to her kiss, as though Angel was too shocked to see her to think of kissing her back, but she didn't care.

He was here.

He wasn't in hell.

He wasn't Angelus.

And, right now, until she'd finished kissing him senseless to make up for everything they'd missed out on for the past six months, that was all she wanted to know.

After a few seconds, she felt her worst fears pass away as Angel started to kiss her back, his experienced lips working against hers as though they'd barely parted once in the past six months. The passion behind his kiss, the beautiful feeling of his tongue rubbing against hers, twisting itself into the nooks and crannies of her mouth...

Buffy could have cried with relief.

_He still loved her._

Even after she'd... she'd...

Despite her current desire to kiss him senseless, the curse on his soul be damned, she realised she still needed to ask him one vital question.

Breaking contact with his lips, she placed her palms on either side of his shoulders and hauled herself up so she was looking him in the eyes.

"H...how?" she asked him, barely able to keep back the tears that were threatening to overwhelm her.

"'How'... what?" Angel asked her. Buffy almost couldn't believe what he'd just said, until she looked him directly in the eyes.

He was really, truly, _genuinely _confused.

Buffy instantly felt worse. Could it be that, whatever he'd come back from had been so... traumatic... that he actually _couldn't _remember.

She swallowed. She hated to do this to the love of her life, but she had to ask him this one question before she could do anything else with him.

"How did you get out of... out of...?" she started to ask him, but stopped before she fully finished the sentence, bowing her head to look at his chest. If nothing else, it gave her something nice to look at while she tried to come up with an at least fairly decent way to put this...

"Out of where?" Angel asked her. He placed one hand underneath her jaw and lifted her face to look him in the eyes. Buffy could have melted under that gaze; his dark eyes, so caring, so concerned, so...

She stopped herself.

_Can't go there yet_, she thought to herself. Whatever had happened to Angel, she wasn't prepared to start thinking about him and anything bed-related yet; she was _not _going to lose him again.

She looked at him, her control barely able to allow her to get the three simple words out. She wasn't sure she wanted to know how he was going to react to this, but she _had _to know the answer.

"Out of... Hell..." she whispered, before she collapsed onto his chest, finally letting the tears run out.

* * *

Angel stared in horror at the younger Buffy as she started to sob uncontrollably onto his chest. He'd recognised the outfit as the one she'd worn when she sent him to Hell, but he hadn't thought that she'd only just done that; he'd been hoping she was just an older Buffy wearing the outfit by pure coincidence.

But a Buffy from just after she'd _killed _him...?  
  
He could understand her expression when she'd first seen him now.

"Oh, Buffy..." he whispered softly, as he placed his arms around her and hugged her close to him, not even caring that her tears were swiftly soaking his shirt. "I know this is going to be hard for you, but... I have to tell you something very important before we go any further."

Buffy looked up at him, her eyes still puffy from crying.

"W-what?" she asked, looking at him.

"I'm not... not _quite _the Angel you know," Angel explained, looking at her as he held her in his arms. "A demon cast a spell of some kind... I don't know what it was for, but, apparently, it... pulled you into your future."

* * *

Buffy blinked at him. "The... the future?" she asked. "Are you serious?"

"Of course he's bloody serious, Buffy," a voice said from off to the side in a familiar annoying English accent.

Buffy couldn't believe it. Here she was, in (If Angel was accurate) the _future_, having just discovered that the love of her life had survived Hell itself...

And that peroxide _prick _had shown up?!

Hoping she was wrong, she looked up in the direction of the voice...

And saw _him_ standing there.

Spike.

Even after he'd _promised _her that he'd leave after he got Drusilla back, he'd still come back...

Growling in her throat in a manner that made Spike and Angelus's most threatening growls seem like nothing, Buffy leapt off Angel, ran over to Spike, and struck him a powerful blow to the chin, sending him reeling back into the wall behind him.

"Bloody hell!" Spike yelped, looking up at the young Slayer as he clutched his jaw. "What the hell was that for?"

"Geez, I don't know," Buffy said, looking down at him with malice in her eyes. "Let's start with the fact that you tried to kill the love of my life, and later on tried to destroy the entire world, and work our way up from there."

"What?" Spike asked, looking up at her. "What the hell..."

"Spike," Angel said from behind Buffy.

Looking back at him, Buffy was amazed to see that he wasn't looking at Spike with the same rage on his face as she had. In fact, he almost appeared to be...

_Pitying _the other vampire?

Angel continued talking. "Let me fill her in, OK? She trusts me, whereas you... well, to say she hates you right now is putting it mildly."

Spike growled, but appeared to be prepared to concede the point to Angel.

* * *

Buffy looked back at Angel in confusion.

"What the hell are you doing?!" she hissed at him. "That's _Spike_! You know, the guy who tried to _kill _us both on several occasions?!"

"Buffy," Angel said, looking at her with that piercing stare that she'd once told him always made her feel like she was melting under his stare. "It's been six years since your time. A lot of things have changed in that time."

Buffy blinked in horror at that statement. "Six... _years_?" she asked, staring at him as though she wanted him to laugh, to say he was joking, that it had only been a few months at most...

That just showed how badly she was shaken up. He'd never been much of a joker at the time period she was from, and she would never think that a trip to Hell had improved it.

"Yes," he said, trying to be as soothing as he could. "A lot's changed in that time, Buffy. For one thing, Spike's started working with us."

* * *

Buffy blinked. "Huh?" she asked, shaken. Spike fighting on the side of good? How the hell did that happen?

"Yeah, happened about four years ago," a fourth voice said from her left. Looking in that direction, Buffy saw a figure she didn't recognise; a humanoid demon with small red horns, green skin, and orange-brown hair that stuck up a bit like Angel's, dressed in a vivid blue jacket and trousers and a dark green shirt underneath. "Got this chip planted in his head that rendered him unable to feed off humans, and started working with you guys in order to have something to vent his frustration on."

"Ah," Buffy said, trying to sound like she'd understood that statement. "And you are?"

"Oh, sorry," the demon smiled. "Krevlornswath of the Deathwok clan; pleasure to meet you, Buff. Call me Lorne," he added, as he held out his hand.

Gingerly, Buffy took the offered hand and shook it, before turning back to Angel. "He's a good guy, right?"

"Yeah," Angel replied, smiling a little. Buffy briefly blinked in surprise at that- Angel _smiling_?!- but Angel didn't appear to notice and continued talking. "I met him about three years ago, in a demon karaoke club, and he's chipped in to help us out now and again."

Buffy jumped on the 'us' part instantly; that was the moment she'd been looking for. "'Us' being...?" she asked, trying to sound casual, but inwardly brimming over with a combination of excitement and dread.

* * *

Angel sighed sadly. He wished it didn't have to come to this- he didn't want to face her reaction to this bit of news- but he had no choice.

"Me, Lorne, Spike, and three others whom you haven't met yet," he said to her. "We're in Los Angeles, Buffy. I've been living here for the past five years."

Buffy stared in horror at him. Angel was briefly confused as to what the horror was for, but his curiosity at that was stopped with her next statement.

"Am... am I... dead?"

Angel blinked in shock at that statement. She thought she was _dead_?!

"God, Buffy, no!" he said, pulling her into an embrace so tight that, had she been anyone other than the Slayer, would have crushed her. "You're _not _dead, OK? You're alive and well, and... last time I heard... in Rome."

Buffy looked up at Angel, ignoring the presence of Spike and Lorne, and asked him the one question he really, _really _didn't want to have to answer.

"Then why aren't you with me?"

* * *

Across the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, in a large white villa in Rome, a small blonde figure sat up sharply in a bed, her long blonde hair draped around her shoulders as she stared into the air in confusion.

"'Why aren't you with me'...?" Buffy Summers asked herself, as she stared up at the roof of her new home. "Angel?"


	3. The Last Six Years

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Angel, or any associated characters; I just own this plot. Oh, and sorry I forgot this earlier, but I don't own the villain either; I owe his creation to the very talented Jaclyn Blackrose.

Feedback: I wouldn't mind it in the least.

**CF:** Yeah, I agree, it's gonna be interesting to see Buffy's reaction to everything in the future, such as Spike having a soul and the Potentials thing. By the way, thanks for filling me in on the other stories; I'll check them out as soon as I can.

**Sean Malloy-1:** I'll do that as soon as I can, I promise you that.

**Ellie:** I do my best. Glad to see it's liked.

**Charisma:** Good to see that you've been looking forward to this chapter; hope I didn't keep you waiting too long. By the way, why'd you submit your review twice?

**Melanie:** That's always good to hear.

**a2zmom**: Thanks for saying Buffy's actions appear realistic; I'll try to keep doing that in this chapter. And don't forget, there's a LOT of other stuff Buffy has to find out before she reaches those particular developments in the past six years…

**Grace:** Glad you liked the last chapter. Regarding the 'tall' thing…it was a mistake. I've corrected it now, I assure you.

**Freezyboncoolipants: **Glad to hear you're enjoying it; hope I didn't keep you waiting too long.

**Nat: **Thanks for saying it's interesting, but I'm afraid Angel can only keep one Buffy; no matter what everyone else wants, the past one WILL need to go back to her own time at the end.

**IWRY-ALWAYS: **Thanks for the compliments, and I assure you, I shall indeed keep it up.

AN: OK, this chapter will mostly be Angel filling in Past Buffy on everything that's happened in the intervening six years. I'll try and jump over all but the most important issues in their lives, but this'll still probably take a while.

A Buffy from the Past

Angel sighed again, as he looked down at the small Slayer in his arms, before turning to look at Spike and Lorne.

"Could you guys head back to the car?" he asked them. "Buffy and I… we've got some talking to do. Just head back to the office; I'll call for a car when the time comes."

Lorne and Spike nodded and turned towards the door.

"Just one thing, Angelcakes," Lorne said, as he walked out after Spike. "Don't… tell her too much, OK?"

Angel shook his head slightly, smiling a little in the process. "Lorne, she knows I'm going to come back from _Hell_," he said. "I don't think anything else I'm going to tell her can be any worse of a change in history."

Lorne shrugged. "Good point," he said, before leaving the room. "Good luck!" he called back after them.

Buffy looked at him, puzzled. "What are you talking about?" she asked him. "What could be _bigger _than you returning from Hell?"

"A few things," Angel said, as he sat down on the stone carving he'd been looking at earlier. He patted a place behind him, and Buffy sat there, looking at him with her chin in her left hand, her blond hair falling elegantly over her shoulders…

_Stop, _Angel scolded himself. Losing his soul would be bad enough; he didn't want to imagine what would happen to him if the present Buffy found out _who _he'd lost it with…

* * *

"So, I'll start from when you were running away to L.A.?" he asked her.

"Please," Buffy replied, almost as though he'd asked her if she wanted something to drink.

"Well, you spent a few months there trying to escape your Slayer duties, but things happened and you accepted that you couldn't run away from it forever," Angel began. "You came back to Sunnydale, and, shortly afterwards, you met the new Slayer, Faith-"

"The _new_ Slayer?!" Buffy yelled, sitting bolt upright in surprise. "How- oh, wait… she's Kendra's replacement, right?"

"Right," Angel nodded. "Anyway, shortly after that, under circumstances we've never been able to understand, I… came back from Hell. You found me, but it took me a while to…" He stopped.

He didn't want to have to say this next line…

* * *

"To recover?" Buffy asked, her eyes nearly brimming over with tears at the thought of what he must have gone through. After all, this was _Hell_ they were talking about here…

Angel nodded silently, and a single tear crawled down Buffy's cheek.

"From… from what?" she asked, trying to stop the violent sobs that were threatening to overwhelm her.

But I have to know what happened to him… 

"Let's just say… I was a suspect, along with Oz in wolf-form, for some brutal murders when I first came back," Angel said. "And that wasn't because I was Angelus."

"Oh God…" Buffy whispered, before breaking down and crying into her hands. There was a small sound, and she felt Angel's strong arms embrace her, as she once again found herself sobbing into his shoulder.

He'd reverted to a beast-like mental state… a state where he'd been little better than an animal… and it had been her fault…

"How…" she said through her sobs. "How…"

"How what?" Angel asked her soothingly.

"How can… how can you… you… even _touch _me after that?" she sobbed. "I killed you… I sent you to _Hell_…"

Angel closed his eyes as he held her in his arms. He should have known. Buffy may have been fairly strong after his resurrection, but that had only been because she'd had a few months to cope with the trauma of the incident. This Buffy… she didn't have that to help her.

"Buffy," he said, pulling back from her to look her in the eyes. Even puffy-eyed from crying, she was still the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. "I _never _blamed you for that, OK? I've had six years to get over it, and while I'm not saying I'd ever want to go through that experience again, I don't blame you for it. I did a lot worse to you, anyway."

"_That wasn't you_!" Buffy screamed at him through her tears. "That was _Angelus_! You couldn't control it! I… I don't have that excuse…"

"You don't need it," Angel said, as he pulled her back into her arms. "Buffy, if anyone's to blame for Angelus's actions, it's me, for letting myself get so close to you that you broke my curse. I opened the doors for him; you just happened to be too close to me for him to tolerate your existence."

_And there was the fact that you didn't care for him like you did for me…_ Angel thought to himself, but shook that off at once; he always hated thinking about his demon's twisted feelings for his love.

"God, I…. I stabbed you through the heart…" Buffy sobbed, as though she wasn't even listening to him. "I…. God, I… I _killed _you…"

"You did what you had to do," Angel whispered to her, as he held her in his arms. "If you hadn't done that, you wouldn't have been the girl I fell in love with. I never blamed you, Buffy. I love you too much for that."

Eventually, after a couple of minutes had passed, Buffy stopped crying. She pulled away from Angel and looked him in the eyes, chuckling a little through the remains of her tears.

"Sorry I made you all wet, Angel," she smiled slightly.

Angel shrugged. "I've been wetter," he said. "Besides, it was probably for the best you got that out of you. Anyway, shall I continue?"

"Please," Buffy said, as the two of them pulled apart and sat back down on the ground, although now noticeably closer than they'd been before.

"Well, we tried just being… friends after that, as well as keeping the fact that I'd come back secret from the others," Angel explained. "However, they eventually found out about me when Xander saw me recovering an ancient artefact from a tomb, but they calmed down about it eventually. Things went OK for a while, and then, at Christmas, we started dating again… although constantly trying to prevent it going too far."

"Well, that's something," Buffy said, sounding slightly happier at that titbit. "So, what happened next?"

"We made a pretty good shot at a relationship," Angel explained. "Things were going pretty smoothly in terms of slaying, but then we found out that Faith had, well… betrayed us."

"Huh?" Buffy asked, looking over at Angel in surprise. "Betrayed us? As in, a _Slayer _was fighting us? Why?"

"She… resented us, I think is the best answer," Angel said. "She hated the fact that we always treated her, however unintentionally, as the 'other' Slayer. Then she accidentally killed a mortal, and things went downhill from there. She even formed an alliance with the Mayor, who we'd discovered had sold his soul to a demon a century ago in exchange for power- and was due to transform into a massive snake-like demon on Graduation Day."

"They messed with my graduation?" Buffy asked. "Damn, that sucks."

"Well, it would have been worse if we hadn't discovered Faith's plans," Angel smiled. "Anyway, we managed to find out what kind of demon the mayor was, as well as the fact that it was vulnerable to fire, and, after you'd put Faith in a possibly fatal coma, we blew up the high school."

"Blew it up?" Buffy asked, looking at Angel with a quizzical expression. She grinned "Go us."

"Yeah," Angel smiled. Then his face fell. "And then… I left for L.A."

Buffy blinked. "What?" she asked, looking at him with an expression that was equal parts rage and confusion. Angel briefly found himself thinking it reminded him of her expression when she'd walked in on him holding Faith after they'd taken out that demon assassin, but stopped himself instantly; that was one part of their life he _didn't _want to remember. "You _left _me?! Why?!"

Angel sighed. "I thought… it was for the best," he said. "You deserved so much more than I could give you… walks in the park, children, a normal life… and I… I didn't want to deprive you of that."

"Angel, not meaning to insult your intelligence, but _bullshit_!" Buffy yelled at him, leaping to her feet again as she spoke. "Walks in the park? I never go there anyway! A normal life? I think I lost that chance the second I met Merrick! Kids? A little thing called 'adoption' ringing a bell? And don't even _think _about brining sex into this!" she added as Angel started to open his mouth. "If we lasted for a year without it, we _must _have been all right with that little problem! Do you even know if I _wanted _that stuff?"

"The fact that you dated a human guy for over a year seemed to suggest you saw my point," Angel put in, his head bowed so she couldn't see the pain in his eyes.

* * *

Buffy blinked. _That _had been unexpected.

She'd… she'd actually dated someone other than Angel?

"Wh… who?" she croaked out, knowing that she sounded like she was going to cry, but not caring in the least. What had happened to her…?

"A guy called Riley Finn," Angel said. "He was your Psych T.A. in college, but was also a member of a demon-hunting government organisation called 'the Initiative'. You started dating him around five months after we broke up."

"Oh," Buffy commented, as she sat back down on the ground. "So… what happened?"

"You broke up," Angel said. He briefly contemplated not telling her the details, but decided she had a right to know. "You… you caught him paying vampire whores to suck his blood."

Buffy almost choked. "_WHAT?!_" she asked, looking at him in horror. "Why the HELL would he do that?"

"Me, really," Angel admitted, sounding slightly sheepish. "He felt you didn't love him like you loved me and wanted to find out what it was about the vampire thing that, well… turned you on."

Buffy blinked. "O-kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay," she said, sounding like she wanted to get something straight. "He thought I was into you because of the vampire thing? Why would he think that?"

"Yeah, about that…" Angel said, starting to regret ever starting this conversation without thinking it through; he was letting _way_ too much information come out. "I, uh… bit you… and drank from you… the night before graduation."

"Huh?" Buffy asked, looking slightly curious at this bit of information. "Why was that?"

Angel sighed. "I was poisoned. The only cure was the blood of a Slayer. You tried to get Faith's blood for me, but she got away…"

"And I had to beat you half- senseless and force you to my neck, right?" Buffy asked casually.

Angel looked up at her, smiled, and nodded. "The bite left a scar which still hasn't gone away, to the best of my knowledge," he explained. "It's the reason Riley even knew about the whole affair."

"Ah," Buffy said, as she sat back down. "So, what happened from there?"

* * *

"Well, the usual sort of thing; demons, vampires, and assorted spells," Angel explained. "Eventually, during a fight with the First Evil, the original evil on this plane of existence, you managed to destroy the Hellmouth and activate every Potential on the planet, although you destroyed Sunnydale in the process."

Buffy blinked. "Huh?" she asked. "What was that about the Potentials? And who are they anyway?"

"The Potential Slayers," Angel explained. "A spell was cast that channelled the energies of this magick scythe you'd managed to acquire recently, and activated the powers of every Potential in the world. Last I heard, you were tracking down new Slayers in Rome, Xander in Africa, and Willow in Brazil."

"We activated the world's Slayers?" Buffy asked. She grinned. "Go us." Then she looked over at Angel again. "Xander and Willow are still alive? How's everyone else?"

"Well, Willow's become a remarkably powerful witch in recent times," Angel explained. "Following her restoration of my soul, she got into magick a great deal more; she was the one who cast the spell that activated the Potentials. Also, she… became a lesbian."

"What?!" Buffy asked, looking at him in surprise. "Willow? WILLOW is a lesbian?!"

"She and Oz broke up a couple of months after you all started college, and then she dated a witch called Tara for nearly three years, until Tara was killed by one of your enemies," Angel explained. "Last I heard, she was currently seeing one of the new Slayers, a girl called Kennedy. She's still not completely over Tara, but she's happy."

Buffy, briefly looked like she didn't know what to say, but, eventually, she just smiled.

"Good for her," she said, nodding in approval. "Nice she has someone. How about Xander?"

"He and Cordelia broke up and he started dating an ex-vengeance demon called Anya," Angel explained. "He almost married her, but they broke up for various reasons I'm not entirely clear on. She died in the final battle on the Hellmouth, but he made it out all right, baring the loss of an eye."

"Ouch," Buffy winced. Suddenly, she remembered something else she'd nearly forgotten about. "What about Cordelia? Where's she in all this?"

"She moved to L.A. after high school, ran into me, and persuaded me to set up a detective agency to provide some cash for her until her 'big break'," Angel explained. He didn't want to go into too much detail on that front; her reaction to the news he'd developed feelings for Cordelia was something he _didn't _want to see…

"You worked with Cordelia?" Buffy asked him. "Geez, how did you do that and not go insane from the whining?"

"She improved over the years," Angel said, although he briefly allowed himself a little grin nevertheless; it was moments like this, when he was just sitting with her, talking about anything that was going on at the moment, that were the memories of their relationship he particularly cherished. "Mostly because she was given the ability to have visions of people in trouble, following the death of a new friend of mine called Doyle."

"A _nice_ Cordelia?" Buffy asked, looking ready to start laughing at the mere idea. She stared at the ceiling for a few seconds, lost in thought, and then looked back at Angel. "How's she doing at the moment?"

"Dead," Angel said simply.

"Oh," Buffy said, instantly sorry she'd brought it up. From the expression on Angel's face, it was clear that he'd come to consider Cordelia a close friend over the years. "How?"

"She was possessed by this thing that was using her to gain its own body," Angel explained. "When it left her, she went into a coma, which she was in for the next few months until dying a couple of weeks ago."

"Ah," Buffy said. What else was there to say?

Then a thought occurred to her. "Any other additions in my life that I should know about?"

* * *

"To you? Not really," Angel said. "Although…" He stopped, took a deep breath, and then continued. "You have a sister."

"Huh?" Buffy asked, looking at Angel in confusion. "A sister? How?"

"Some monks were trying to protect an ancient magical power known as 'the Key' from falling into the hands of an evil god called Glory, so they cast a spell that turns the Key into your younger sister, Dawn Summers, and gave everyone memories of her in your lives up to that point," Angel explained. He briefly contemplated mentioning the death of her mother, but decided not to; there'd be time for that later.

"Ah," Buffy said. "Well, that makes sense. And the Spike thing?"

"Him being on our side now?" Angel asked. "Well, Riley's tied into that part of the story. His organisation captured Spike and put this chip in his head that caused him experience blinding pain whenever he tried to perform physical violence on anything human. Discovering that it _didn't _prevent him from hurting demons, he became an unofficial member of the Scooby Gang, mostly just to vent his frustration out on something…" He stopped talking, as a thought occurred to him.

How was he to explain the little detail of Spike's soul?

"And?" Buffy asked, picking up on his hesitation.

"And…" Angel sighed. "He got a soul."

"A WHAT?!" Buffy asked, looking at him in surprise again; Angel was starting to get used to that expression. "How? When? Why?!"

"A demon gave it back to him nearly two years ago," Angel explained. "I'm… a little hazy on the details, but I think he was actually trying to get his chip out of his head, and the demon didn't exactly give him what he was looking for. After you activated the Potentials, he came over here to L.A. and started to work with us."

"Ah," Buffy said, sighing in relief. "Well, at least I know he wasn't just trying to copy you with the soul thing." Then she clicked her fingers as a thought occurred to her. "And while we're on that topic, what's happened to you since you left… Sunnydale?"

_She didn't say 'me'_, Angel noted, slightly relieved that she was trying to ignore that little detail; he didn't want it hanging over their heads.

"Well, as I said, I set up a detective agency on Cordelia's suggestion, consisting of me, her, and a half-demon called Doyle, who had visions from the higher powers of people in trouble," Angel explained. "Doyle… died about three months afterwards, but he passed the visions onto Cordelia before his death, and then we were joined by Wesley, a former member of the Watcher's Council who'd lost his job."

"Interesting group," Buffy commented. "Any others I wouldn't know- including the green guy with Spike, of course," she added almost as an afterthought.

"Yeah, three more besides Lorne," Angel said; no point mentioning Connor, nobody even knew he'd ever existed in the first place apart from him… "Wesley Windham-Pryce, a fired Watcher who joined us when we were both tracking a Kungai demon, Charles Gunn, a streetwise vampire killer we met while tracking a nest, and Winifred Burkle- normally called Fred-, a physics student who we rescued from another dimension called Pylea. Lorne originally came from that dimension, but came to ours a few years ago and opened up a demon karaoke bar, which got destroyed a couple of years ago. He's been with us ever since."

"And that's your crew?" Buffy asked. "An ex-Watcher, a street fighter, a physics geek, a demon, and Spike?" She shrugged. "Interesting bunch."

"They do their best," Angel smiled. Then a thought occurred to him. "Anyway, you'll be meeting them soon enough."

"Huh?" Buffy asked.

"Well, we need to work out what pulled you into this time, and what it was trying to achieve in the first place," Angel explained, as he got to his feet, reached out one hand and hauled Buffy to her feet. "To do that, we're probably going to need some assistance from you, no matter how good we are. Besides…" he shrugged. "I'd like you to meet them. What else can I say?"

"Fair enough," Buffy smiled, as she looked him in the eyes. "Lead on, MacDuff."

"Sure thing," Angel said, as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a cellphone as they started to walk out of the dusty room. "Just let me call for a car."

* * *

"Spike… With a soul?" Buffy whispered, as she stared up at her ceiling in room, memories of something she'd never experienced flooding through her head. "Lorne… Fred…"

She slid off the bed and, grabbing a dressing gown, pulled in on over her blue satin pyjamas as she headed out of her room for the phone.

Picking it up, she dialled a number and waited for it to be answered.

"Willow?" she asked. "Sorry to wake you up, but I've got a bit of a situation I need to investigate, and I'd appreciate all the aid I can get. Call Xander, Faith and Giles. We're going to L.A."

_I'm going to see Angel…_


	4. The Face Of Darkness

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Angel, or any associated characters; I just own this plot. Oh, and Heure. I don't own Duana; he's a creation of Jaclyn Blackrose.

Feedback: I wouldn't mind it in the least.

**CF: **Glad Past Buffy's reactions went down well; I was a bit worried about them, actually. Regarding the things she _hasn't_ been filled in on… they'll come up (Except Connor; I mean, since Angel's the only one who remembers him at this point, why would he mention it?) However, regarding Modern Buffy's memories and the Shanshu Prophecy…

You'll have to wait and see.

**charisma: **Glad it's proving popular. To answer your question, she hasn't been filled in on the Spike thing yet, and probably won't be for a while now; after all, why would she want to know she shagged Spike for stress relief (As far as I'm concerned, that is _all _the Spike/Buffy thing was).

**ianthiria:** Think it's ambitious now? Wait until you see who the bad guy's got working for him…

**Tariq:** That'll come up later, but while there may be B/S moments, they won't be very romantic; as I said earlier, as far as I'm concerned, the Buffy/Spike thing was only stress relief on Buffy's part. Also, not meaning to be harsh, but Past Buffy hasn't even _met _Wesley yet in her time, so she can't really be impressed by the change. Oh, and I assure you, this will have a definite plot beyond the double Buffys, and a crisis like nothing you've seen before…

**melluvben: **Hope I didn't keep you waiting too long.

A Buffy from the Past

Heure swallowed nervously as he materialised in the main room of the house of his superior, already fearing what the reaction would be. His boss had gone to a lot of effort to arrange that spell to be cast, and he doubted he'd be pleased to have their efforts thwarted at the last minute.

Swallowing, he walked towards the room, opening the door quickly before he lost his nerve. He noticed his red hand shaking as he opened the door, and tried desperately to stop it; he'd rather not have his fear be made so obvious to his master.

Inside the large hall, there were several books of magic positioned on tables below the windows, each book illuminated by the only light in the hall, in deference to the vampire's wishes. The leader of this little group, the one who'd come up with this plan in the first place, was sitting idly in his throne, twirling a short knife in his hand.

Heure wasn't worried; he knew that, whatever else his boss was, he didn't kill the bearers of bad news. Besides, his part in this operation wasn't over yet; he doubted Duana would kill him right away.

As he shuffled in his red robes, partly hoping his boss wouldn't notice him and partly wishing he'd hurry up and see him, Heure was relieved to hear Duana cough slightly in acknowledgement of him.

"Ah, Heure, my good fellow," Duana grinned, laying the knife down on the arm of his throne and placing the tips of his fingers as he looked over at Heure. "Shall I congratulate you on a job well done?"

Heure swallowed, fiddled a little with his staff, and stared down at the floor. "No," he mumbled, half-hoping Duana wouldn't hear him.

"What?" Duana asked, prompting Heure to look up again. "What do you mean, 'No'? What went wrong?"

"The vampires, Duana," Heure explained, hoping against hope that Duana wouldn't get too angry at his failure. "They burst in on me while I was performing the ceremony, and Angelus knocked some extra blood into the tablet before I could complete the ritual."

"Blood?" Duana asked, looking a little shocked for the first time since Heure had known him. "How much blood? Did it affect the process?"

"Yes," Heure said, hoping against hope that Heure wouldn't be too angry at this bit of news. "Enough to pull the Slayer into our time from just after she sent Angelus to Hell to stop Alcathla. I took a little scry before I came here, and she was heading to Wolfram & Hart with Angelus."

Before Heure could do anything, Duana had leapt from his seat, struck Heure in the stomach, and knocked him to the ground. Heure briefly grunted in pain, but was relieved to find that nothing was broken as he used his staff to shakily rise to his feet.

"Damnit!" Duana yelled, driving his fist into the wall as he looked over at Heure in rage. "Do you realise what that means?"

"You'll need to change your plans?" Heure asked, trying not to sound too taunting; for all of Duana's faults, he was not a good demon to anger.

"No, I was allowing for having to change them if this attempt failed," Duana stated, looking back at Heure. "What angers me is that _now_, unless we somehow manage to kill her now that Angelus and William have found her, we shall shortly have the present Slayer on our backs, along with her entire gang, and possibly several of the new Slayers as well. My plans are good, but I shall definitely need to rethink them if we're facing _them_!"

Then he sighed and looked over at Heure, who looked like he was about to have a panic attack or fall down in a faint. He grinned.

"Don't worry, Heure, I'm not going to kill you," Duana smiled. "I still have need of your particular talents." His face adopted a small grin that Heure rarely saw on his new master. "Contact Brindil, will you? This next phase of the operation shall require the two of you working in tandem to work properly."

Heure nodded, and turned to walk towards the door to this room.

"Oh, and Heure?" Duana said. "Contact our European friend, will you?" He grinned maliciously. "I think it's time we see what our little temporally displaced Slayer is capable of."

And, for the first time since he'd arrived in that room, Heure was relieved.

* * *

"Wow…" Buffy said, as she stared at the large building in front of her. She glanced over at Angel. "And that's _all _yours?" 

"Pretty much," Angel said, looking a little uncomfortable as he shifted slightly in his seat. "We got it as… thanks for stopping a particularly strong creature that was trying to take over the planet. It was originally an evil law firm- and, to be frank, there's still a couple of dark corners to it- but I like to think we're changing things in it."

"Oh," Buffy said, as she looked back at the building. It had been _evil_… and now Angel was running it? What did that say about…?

But she shook that thought off. No matter what had changed about him in the last six or so years, Angel had not gone evil. He _couldn't_ be… Not after kissing her so tenderly, holding her as she wept into his shoulder…

He couldn't be.

"So," Buffy asked, as she looked over at Angel when the car stopped outside the building's main door, "shall we?"

And she offered him her arm. She knew it was a bit of an old-fashioned gesture, but since she'd missed out on Prom night, she felt like she was entitled to walk into a large building with the love of her life.

"Of course, m'lady," Angel smiled, taking her arm and walking into the building, entering the large main hall in only a few steps.

It wasn't much. In fact, Buffy realised, as she looked herself, there was only a security guard at a desk to their right and a single door in front of them.

"Eh?" she asked Angel, looking over at him curiously. "This is your office?"

"No, this is just the lobby," Angel said casually, as he walked towards the door and pushed the button for what Buffy now realised was the elevator. "The main floor's a bit further up; they restricted access to the rest of the building after it was destroyed by a particularly powerful demon. This way… well, it may not provide much extra security for the stronger demons, but at least we have a chance of getting alerted to their presence before they come charging in."

"Nice," Buffy commented, as the elevator arrived and the two of them stepped inside it, Angel pushing the top button as he got inside.

"I called Spike on the way back and asked him to get everyone else into my office," Angel explained, in answer to Buffy's curious look at the pushed button.

"Ah," Buffy said, nodding a little as she processed that comment. "So, I'll be meeting the gang? Do they have any ideas about… well, me?"

"No," Angel said. "Spike and Lorne apparently decided that the others wouldn't believe it unless they actually saw you directly." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose with his right thumb and index finger as he spoke. "Can't say I blame him; I certainly wasn't expecting…"

He stopped.

"Expecting what?" Buffy asked, curious. What was he trying to hide…?

"…This," Angel answered, sounding lame even to himself.

Before Buffy could ask anything more about that, the door to the elevator opened and Angel stepped out, Buffy close behind him.

Briefly, Buffy found herself looking at the mahogany desk in the centre of the room with the large array of medieval weaponry behind it, and thinking that the mixture of warrior and CEO made a very interesting combination for Angel, but then was brought back to reality by a voice off to one side.

* * *

"Oh… my… god," Fred said, as Buffy turned around to face the other members of the group. "Is… are you…?" 

"Me?" Buffy asked, smiling slightly and holding out a sheepish hand. "Yeah. Buffy Summers, Vampire Slayer of the Year in 1997- and, I understand, quite a few years after it. You're Fred, right?"

Blinking, Fred shook Buffy's hand in a daze, Angel smiling slightly as he watched the scene. Despite all their efforts to bond with the Scoobies whenever a situation had required the two teams to work together, he'd never felt like his new friends had ever really connected with his old ones. He was hoping that they'd manage to remedy that on this occasion.

"1997?" Wesley asked, blinking slightly in surprise. "You mean… you're not the Buffy we know?"

"No, not really," Buffy smiled, turning to look at him. "Based on the accent, I'll assume you're Wesley? Ex-Watcher, former rouge demon hunter, currently working with Angel?"

"Um… yes," Wesley said, stretching out one hand to shake Buffy's. "So, just out of curiosity, when in the past are you actually from?"

Buffy blinked slightly at that comment, and then looked over at Angel.

"Apart from Spike, do they know about…?" she asked him.

"Alcathla?" Angel half-asked, half-answered. "Yeah."

"Oh," Buffy said, before she turned back to look at Wesley. "Then, in that case, I'm from just after Alcathla was stopped."

"Oh," Fred said, looking at her in pity. "Then you just sent Angel to… to…"

"Yeah," Buffy nodded, her eyes slightly brimming tears at the thought. However, she blinked them back and turned to look at Gunn. "Gunn, right? How'd you get a name like that, by the way?"

"It's my surname," Gunn said, as he shook her hand. "I just prefer being known by it." He shrugged. "Never really decided why."

"Fair enough," Buffy shrugged, as she turned around to look at the entire group. "So, care to make a start at finding out what the hell's going on here?"

"Ah… yes… right," Wesley said, shaking off his confusion at the whole thing and looking over at Spike and Lorne. "I assume you two knew about this?"

"Yep," Spike said.

"Naturally," Lorne grinned. "Don't worry; we concealed nothing else from you; we just didn't tell you about our little Slayer coming through time because of the guy's spell."

"Very well," Wesley said, nodding briefly. "So, what kind of demon was it, exactly?"

"Red," Angel put in, from where he was standing beside Buffy, his arm protectively around her. "Red robes, red skin, reminiscent of Christopher Lee but with sharper ears, nose, and teeth, and a long staff with a golden serpent wrapped around it."

Wesley nodded as he processed that information. "Interesting…" he said, before looking over at Angel. "This demon was calling on Tempus? How was he doing that?"

"Blood sacrifice, it looked like," Angel put in. "He was holding a cup and pouring it into some carvings on the tablet, but then I knocked some extra blood into the tablet and he started yelling that I'd ruined everything before vanishing as Buffy appeared."

"Interesting," Wesley commented, as he looked over at Buffy. "Well, the rage appears easy enough to work out the reason for; extra blood wouldn't change the spell's focus, and it was most likely reaching into a certain point in the past few years, rather than go too far back into Buffy's life, so it seems likely that it was after her during her Cruciamentum. Most likely so she's be easier to kill."

"My wha?" Buffy asked, looking at Angel curiously.

"A rather stupid, in my opinion, rite of passage of the Watcher's Council," Angel explained, looking over at Wesley in an apparent gesture of apology. Wesley just shrugged and Angel continued. "Basically, when the Slayer reaches her eighteenth birthday, the Council remove her Slayer abilities and pit her up against a particularly nasty vampire to see how her non-physical abilities are. Your one didn't exactly go according to plan; not only did the vampire capture your mother, but Giles then broke the rules and told you about it. He got fired, and Wesley replaced him as your Watcher until you officially left the council at the end of your school year."

Buffy blinked. "They _fired _Giles?" she said. "Man, things must have gone downhill after that…"

She looked over at Wesley. "No offence meant on you, by the way; I'm sure you did an OK job."

"Actually, I didn't" Wesley shrugged. "Back then I was, to be perfectly frank, an idiot. You never really followed my advice and always deferred to Giles whenever it came to a crisis, not that I can blame you for it when I look back; I mean, I was actually proud of having defeated two vampires under _controlled_ conditions." He shook his head as he thought back to those old days. "What was I thinking?"

"Eh, that isn't you anymore, English," Gunn smiled, patting Wesley lightly on the back before turning back to Buffy and Angel. "So, to the books?"

Angel nodded. "To the books," he said. "We need everything we can find about this guy; his motives, his history, his capabilities, everything."

"And, if possible, we should be thinking about something to get me home?" Buffy asked, slightly sheepishly. "I mean, I'm not exactly keen about returning home, but, well, if I don't, there's going to be some real troubles with history, right?"

Angel nodded, although he was already trying to think of an alternative to that option. It may have been selfish, but he didn't want Buffy to just leave him like this and go back to the past. Once she was gone…

He'd have lost her forever.

He shook that off right away; it wasn't the right thing to be thinking.

_I lost her a long time ago_, Angel thought to himself, as his young ex started talking casually to Fred while he watched. _All I can do now is send her home._


	5. The Power Of Heure

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Angel, or any associated characters; I just own this plot, Heure, and Brindil. I don't own Duana; he's a creation of Jaclyn Blackrose.

Feedback: I wouldn't mind it in the least.

**melluvben:** Getting with the present day Buffy is something Angel doesn't think is possible; last he heard, she doesn't trust him anymore simply because he's in charge of Wolfram & Hart now. But I'm glad you found Angel's thoughts on the matter cute; in my opinion, Buffy/Angel love is one of the greatest loves in this world, both in fiction and in non-fiction.

**Alicia08:** I might go into that later, but at the moment, I'm assuming Spike's trying to avoid this Buffy paying too much attention to him; after all, she still hates his guts, even if the modern one tolerates him to a certain degree. Regarding the memory/psychic connection between the two Buffys… that will be explained in due course.

**Out-of-Reality:** I'm hoping I shall achieve that goal, I assure you of that.

**BeraMoon:** I try my best, and I assure you Heure and Duana's plans shall be explained shortly- but, of course, not _too_ soon…

**urangel:** That'll be coming eventually, and I'm glad this is proving an interesting twist on the shows.

**charisma: **Oh, Duana will be explained eventually, but for now, you'll have to settle for getting filled in on Heure's abilities.

**CF:** Glad to hear the introductions went well, as well as the bit about the Cruciamentum; I was a bit worried about it. Oh, and thanks for reminding me about the Harmony thing; you wouldn't believe it, but that TOTALLY slipped my mind!

**Tariq:** Firstly, sorry about the confusion there. Secondly, a valid point, but there are two reasons they won't be as surprised as you'd think; firstly, I'm counting the crossover novels ('Heat', 'Monster Island', and all that) as part of Buffy and Angel continuity, and even if I wasn't, Willow still may have filled in everyone else in the gang about the change in Wesley following her trip to L.A. in 'Orpheus' to restore Angel's soul.

**IWRY-ALWAYS: **I hope it'll prove interesting then as well, but there's a _couple _of things that need to be done first…

**mione: **Hope I didn't keep you waiting, and I'm glad to find someone who agrees with me regarding keeping Past Buffy ignorant of the Spike thing.

A Buffy from the Past

"Found it!" Fred yelled, looking up from the book she'd been reading for the past two hours.

Lorne glanced over her shoulder, and nodded. "Yep, that's the guy," he said, smiling over at Fred. "Bit less red than he is in person, but that's easy enough to explain away."

"Who is he?" Buffy asked, from where she was now standing behind Fred.

"Lady and gentlemen," Fred grinned, as she lay the book down in front of her, "let me present to you the demon Heure."

"Heure?" Gunn asked, looking curiously over at Fred. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that the French for 'Hour'?"

"It is," Fred nodded, before turning back to the book again. "And according to this, it's fairly appropriate; Heure is capable of manipulating time itself, if only to a certain degree."

"A certain degree meaning…?" Lorne asked, spinning his hand slightly in a prompting manner.

"Well, he can't actually go into the past himself, nor can he do anything in regards to looking into the future," Fred explained. "However, he can reach into the past and pull certain people out of the past at certain times in their lives, so long as he knows precisely where they were at that time. He does this by calling on Tempus thanks to a blood sacrifice, while going back over the history of the person he's after in his mind, and then channels that energy through his staff." She looked over at Wesley. "Looks like you guessed right; the blood allows him to go back along that person's timeline from the present to a certain point in their past, and any extra blood would simply send the spell back to a further point in their lives. They were definitely after Buffy during her Cruciamentum."

"But… why then?" Buffy asked, looking around at the group with some confusion on her face. "I mean, why try and target me then? Wouldn't it make more sense to take me out before I even became the Slayer?"

"No, it wouldn't," Angel said, shaking his head slightly as he spoke. "For one thing, if they killed you then, they'd have no way of knowing who'd get called as the Slayer instead; they might have gotten someone deadlier than you, for all they know. Plus, the way I see it, there's one definite plus point in taking you out then."

"Which is?" Gunn asked, looking over at his friend enquiringly.

"They won't have to deal with a new Slayer," Angel said simply.

"I'm sorry?" Buffy asked, looking up at Angel curiously. "What do you mean by that?"

"Look at it logically, Buffster," Lorne said, smiling at her from where he was sitting at the table. "By that point in time, you'd already died once, and that activated that Kendra girl I've heard a bit about. Therefore, you're out of the 'chosen' loop; you won't activate a new Slayer when you die, you'll just…" He shrugged. "You know."

"How can you be sure?" Buffy asked, looking sharply over at the green-skinned demon.

Lorne swallowed and glanced over at Spike and Angel, as though he was wishing he was anywhere bit in this situation.

"Little help here, guys?" he asked them, looking like he was about to get hit by the Beast.

"Oh, bloody hell…" Spike groaned, as he looked over at Angel. "You or me?"

"You were there when it happened," Angel said simply.

"Bollocks…" Spike muttered under his breath, before turning to look at Buffy. "You died a couple of years ago and nothing Slayer-related happened, Buff. That's how we can be sure."

Buffy blinked and looked over at Angel, her expression somewhere between horror and rage.

"You said I _wasn't _dead!" she yelled at him.

"You're not!" Angel said, trying to sound reassuring. "Willow brought you back to life a short while later. You're still alive and living in Italy, as I told you, and also perfectly normal."

"Oh," Buffy said, unsure how to react to that. She'd… _died _a second time? _Wonder how long it was this time…_ she wondered to herself.

She briefly froze as another thought occurred to her.

_What did I _do _to the others?_

She hadn't exactly been pleasant after a few minutes dead; what had she been like this time…?

* * *

"Anyway," Wesley said, breaking her train of thought as he looked over at Fred and Gunn, "what would you say our next move should be?"

"Obvious, really," Angel said, looking around at his friends, his gaze lingering for a few moments on Buffy. "Wesley, Fred, Gunn; the three of you go through all our files and client records. Try to see if you can find anything about Heure in them; his likely location, for one thing. Buffy, you're with me; we'll check out some of my underground sources, see what we can find out on the street."

"And me?" Spike asked, raising one hand as he lounged on the table. "What am I expected to do?"

"Act as security back here," Angel said simply. "Wherever Heure is, if he gets in here while Buffy and I are out, we're going to need someone to stop him before he does any damage. You're the only person here capable of that."

"Couldn't you just leave me here?" Buffy asked. "I mean, I'm not exactly in my proper place, am I? Wouldn't it make more sense to just keep me somewhere safe until you know what… Hour's planning?"

"Heure," Fred corrected automatically.

"Whatever," Buffy sighed. She looked at Angel. "Not that I _want _to stay behind or anything, it's just… well, Spike knows this time. I don't."

"You'll have me with you," Angel replied. "Besides, it's probably safer to leave Spike here rather than you; after all, if you die, who knows what could happen to history? At least I can keep an eye on you this way." He smiled slightly. "Besides, you're the deadliest Slayer in history. That's got to make _some_ people a bit more talkative."

Buffy smiled. "Really?" she asked. "Well, in that case…" She stood up and held out her hand. "Gimme a stake and let's get ready to rumble."

Angel smiled back at her. "We've got a wider arsenal than that, Buffy," he said, as he turned towards a nearby cabinet and opened it, revealing a large amount of weaponry.

He looked back at her. "Double-headed axe or double-edged sword?" he asked her casually.

* * *

"Mind explaining a bit more as to why we're doing this?" Dawn asked, from off to the side.

"Mmm?" Buffy asked, breaking off her train of thought and looking over at her sister. "Oh, sorry, Dawn; dozed off for a moment there. What was that?"

"I said, mind explaining to me why we're going to Los Angeles all of a sudden?" Dawn said, as she sat down beside her sister in Rome's bustling airport. "I mean, not that I'm not grateful for the chance to see Angel again, but I thought you didn't exactly trust him anymore. You know, the whole Wolfram and Hart thing?"

Buffy sighed. "Why is it nobody got that point?" she asked the ceiling rhetorically, before turning to look at her sister again. "I never said I didn't trust Angel, Dawn. I simply said I wasn't exactly sure I could rely on everyone _else _on his team; after all, I don't really know Gunn, Lorne and Fred that well, and Wesley…" She shrugged. "According to what Willow learned when she headed down there to restore his soul, he's a lot darker than he was."

"He only kept a girl in a closet!" Dawn said, sounding like she was chuckling a little as she finished the sentence. Buffy couldn't help but grin as well; she still couldn't exactly picture Wesley keeping someone prisoner for any length of time without _them_ torturing _him_.

"Yeah, but it's still not exactly the act of a totally 'good guy'," she added, trying to stop smirking before she embarrassed herself further. Then she became a bit more serious as she looked over at Dawn. "Anyway, I… I want to apologise about it. I have to explain the truth to Angel…"

"And you needed to drag the rest of us along because…?" Dawn asked, waving her hand casually.

Buffy sighed. "I can't explain that, Dawn," she replied. "All I can say is… I think that something's wrong down in L.A., and I… I have to go there to help him."

Dawn sighed and looked over at her sister. "Well, knowing you, I'm not going to get anything more out of you until the time's right," she said. Grabbing her bag, she slung it over her shoulder and looked over at her sister. "Let's go. The love of your life awaits."

* * *

Duana looked at the figure in front of him, his fingers clasped together as he talked. He knew the grin on his face might be spoiling his authoritive air, but he couldn't help it. After all, he was in the presence of one of the few real vampires who even _humans_ knew about…

…. And he was giving him _orders_!

It was at times like this that Duana was glad he'd waited so long to attempt his strike against humanity.

"You understand the situation?" he asked the vampire, trying not to sound too eager about this whole thing. "At the very least, I want you to do some damage to the Slayer and the vampire before you bat out on them; just don't kill either of them yet."

"May I enquire as to why not?" the vampire asked, looking curiously at Duana. "I understood that you wanted her dead when she came through."

"Yes, I did at the time," Duana said, looking up at the ceiling in a bored sort of manner. Then he grinned and looked over at the vampire. "However, I've changed my mind. After all, where's the point in winning if you don't have some decent competition? And what could be better than _two _versions of history's greatest vampire Slayer, fighting an impossible fight? It's too tempting for words…"

The vampire nodded. "I see your point," he said, as he got up. Just as he was about to leave the room, he turned and looked back at Duana. "I have one request."

"Name it," Duana smiled.

"Allow me the chance to turn one of our foes," the vampire asked. "I have a certain… interest in the Slayer's younger sister; her innocence would be an enchanting thing to corrupt. Or maybe the vampire's physicicst…"

"Yes, they do leave us a bit spoiled for choice, don't they?" Duana grinned, before nodding the affirmative at the vampire. "Your request is granted, Dracula."


	6. Enter Freely And Of Your Own Will'

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Angel, or any associated characters; I just own this plot, Heure, and Brindil. I don't own Duana; he's a creation of Jaclyn Blackrose.

Feedback: Naturally

**BAKAMAN:** Well, I will be trying to make her reaction to Spike being alive realistic, but why, exactly, do you think this story won't work as a B/A pairing?

IWRY-ALWAYS: The early villains will be original, but the majority of the foes here will also be known to us all. And yes, I agree; it will be interesting to see how past Buffy lasts against Dracula. 

**mione: **Yeah, a movie would be nice, but we probably shouldn't get our hopes up. Hope I didn't keep you waiting.

**Melluvben: **Oh, he'll learn about that, but it might not be straight away; after all, Buffy doesn't even know it ever happened.

**WhiteWolf 3: **He might indeed, but Angel'd probably slaughter the guy before Spike can talk to him.

**Tariq: **Don't worry, it's not essential to know the plots of the novels; just know that the two groups worked together on those occasions, dealing with Nazi-type demons and ancient Chinese sorcerers respectively.

**Buff: **Glad it's going down well; hope I didn't keep you waiting too long.

**Charisma: **Well, she had to start getting involved sometime. Believe me, we'll be seeing a LOT more of her in the future, along with everyone else in the gang…

**never look back: **Believe me, when the other Buffy shows up, things are just going to get more and more complicated…

**Moonjava: **Thanks for that; I hope you enjoy this chapter too.

A Buffy from the Past

As the comatose form of Ed crashed into his table, Emil found himself wondering at exactly what point the bar had gone downhill. He'd just gone to a bar he'd favoured when he'd been alive, having discovered that it served vampires after closing hours, hoping to catch a little time off for a few hours, and then someone had broken the door down and all proverbial hell had started to break loose.

As soon as they'd entered the room, Emil had recognized the two figures instantly. He may not have seen them in action, what with her being away in Europe now according to rumours and him living it up in Wolfram & Hart like the king of the proverbial castle, but he still knew them by reputation well enough.

Buffy Summers, the Vampire Slayer, and Angelus, the former Scourge of Europe.

Angelus held up his hands in a halting gesture, while Summers swung a large axe she held in her hands briefly before holding it still above her head.

"We're only here for information," Angelus said, looking around at the various assorted vampires in the bar. "First one to make a move will have it worst."

The vampires settled back down into their seats, each one staring down at their glasses in a sheepish manner. However, Emil had rapidly realised, Ed, his current drinking partner, wasn't interested in being quiet. Maybe it was the liquor, maybe it was his traditional arrogance (It had led to him nearly getting killed on a couple of other occasions), or maybe he just wanted to see what they were like. Whatever it was, he leapt to his feet and charged towards the two of them.

It wasn't even really a fight.

Summers swung the axe at Ed's head, twisting the handle so that he was only hit by the flat of the blade, not the edge. Even that was enough to do some serious damage to Ed, throwing him back into the table with enough force to break it and send him hurtling into the wall.

"That was a warning," Summers said, looking around the bar as she slung the axe over her shoulder. "Next one who attacks, I hit him with the sharp end."

"All we want to know about is any rumours regarding any new demons on the scene," Angelus said. "Anything new in the demonic underworld that I should know about?"

Ed shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and then coughed briefly to attract attention. He knew it probably wasn't his best move, but he didn't want his favourite bar trashed.

"Um, I did hear something…" he said, raising one finger timidly.

"Yes?" the Slayer asked, looking over at him.

"Well, there're rumours down at the docks that some big-shot vampire came into L.A. recently," Ed said, already wishing he hadn't said anything; hadn't his sire taught him that _nothing_ good could come of attracting a Slayer's attention? "They said that he'd been called in as an enforcer for some new demon in the city that had a major plan of some kind going down…"

Well, he was committed now…

"Get a name?" Angelus asked, looking over at him.

Ed nervously shook his head. "No… just 'the European'," he said. "I heard the guy's one of the more powerful vampires, but that's about it; I don't even know his age."

"How about a location?" the Slayer asked, as she and Angelus walked over to stand at his table. "Know where he's hiding out?"

Ed swallowed. "Um… I think I heard something about a house in Burbank… some abandoned penthouse…" he said, wishing they'd just leave him.

"Fine," Angelus said, as he turned around and walked for the door.

"Thanks for the assistance," the Slayer said, before she walked on after the vampire.

Ed let out an unneeded breath as they left. At least _that _was over with…

* * *

"Think he's reliable?" Buffy asked, as they got back into the car. Angel had decided to forego the offered limousine, complete with drivers, and had taken his old, familiar GTX; its windows had been upgraded to the tinted versions that wouldn't burn him up in the sun, but otherwise it was still the same as ever.

"He looked scared enough," Angel said, as he started to drive down the street. "I think that gives us enough evidence to assume he's telling the truth."

"OK, but does that necessarily mean this 'European' is connected to whoever had Heure bring me here?" Buffy asked, as she settled back into her seat. "I mean, who's to say L.A.'s only got one major demon at a time?"

"True," Angel said, nodding briefly. "However, one key point about this, Buffy; they brought in a vampire. In most cases, when dealing with a Slayer, demons prefer to use vampires if they're using assassins; they think it shows the Council that nothing can effectively stop demons, even if they've been created for that purpose." He smiled briefly. "I think we can bet we'll find what we're looking for there."

* * *

Tony smirked slightly as he stood behind his sire, from where the tall, regal vampire stood facing the window of his penthouse.

"You are sure that Edward has given them the information?" Dracula asked, turning back to look at the younger vampire. Although barely a hundred and twenty, Tony was one of his more dangerous children, having claimed several vampire hunters and even a Slayer in his time. Ever since Angelus had moved to Los Angeles, Tony had mostly been keeping his head down and tried not to attract attention, but, when the arrival of his sire had reached his ears, he'd wasted no time in contacting him and offering his services.

"Yes, Master," he replied. "Our inside source send me information regarding their likely search parameters, and made sure Ed went to a likely bar. Don't worry; he'll never know what I did."

"I am sure of that at least, Tony," Dracula smiled. "The thrall was always one of your stronger points." Then his face hardened. "Now, leave me. I wish to match wits with these two 'champions' on my own."

Tony didn't protest; he knew that Dracula still resented his defeat at the hands of the Slayer nearly three years ago, and was itching for a rematch. Besides, that time the Slayer had at least had the advantage of two more year's experience under her belt; he should be able to handle her now, even with Angelus's aid.

"Of course, Sire," he said, turning around and walking towards the lift. As he pushed the button for the basement, he briefly smirked.

_Those fools are going to have no idea what they're getting into…_

* * *

"Yikes," Buffy said, as she looked up at the tall building in front of her. It looked like it had been only built in the last decade or so, but no matter how Buffy looked at it, it somehow reminded her of pretty much every castle in every Gothic horror novel she'd ever read, particularly with the damaged windows and the large chunk of masonry missing from one of the top corners. She looked over at Angel. "You're sure this is the place?"

"I'm sure," Angel said, nodding in assurance. "Believe me; I spent a hundred or so years as a fairly high-up vampire. This kind of place is ideal for the big league vampires, or at least the wannabes." He smirked as he reached into the car boot and pulled out his sword, before tossing a second one to Buffy. "Here. You'll probably need this."

Buffy stared thoughtfully at the sword, before grasping its handle and taking a couple of testing swipes. She nodded in approval.

"I'd still prefer a stake, but I think I'll manage with this," she said, turning to look at Angel. "After you?"

"Oh no; ladies first," Angel said, waving his hand towards the door.

"Thank you, kind sir," Buffy said, as the two of them stepped into the building's relatively normal-looking lobby. It was a bit darker than you'd expect of a normal building, but otherwise looked fairly commonplace. Looking around, Buffy saw some stairs at one end of the building, along with an elevator.

Wait a minute…

The numbers on the top of the elevator were dropping. Someone was coming down.

"Angel!" Buffy hissed, jerking her thumb towards the metal doors in question. "Someone's coming down!"

Angel glanced in the direction in question, and nodded.

"Right then," he said, raising his sword. "Let's go."

The elevator stopped.

The door opened.

The vampire stepped out.

Buffy blinked in surprise at the figure in front of her. She wasn't sure what she'd been expecting, but she'd been partly assuming that they'd have to deal with a master vampire; after all, what other kind of vampire would be strong enough to tackle both her _and_ Angel?

But this guy wasn't a master vampire; for one thing, he still had all his hair, and actually looked human. He was dressed in black trousers, shoes, and waistcoat, with a blood-red shirt on underneath it all.

He looked up at her, and grinned. "Good day Slayer, Angelus."

Buffy heard a faint clatter behind her; it sounded like Angel had nearly dropped his sword. She swallowed; whoever this guy was, if he was dangerous enough to make Angel lose focus, he couldn't be good.

"Angel?" she whispered back at him. "Who is this?"

Angel swallowed, and then answered, so low that Buffy could barely hear him, "Dracula…"

Buffy blinked in surprise as she looked up at the vampire.

"Excuse me?" she said, half to Angel and half to the vampire in front of her. "You're Dracula? _The _Dracula? Bram Stoker, Van Helsing, Mina Harker, the whole 'turn into a bat' shtick?"

"Indeed," 'Dracula' smiled at her.

Buffy laughed. "Yeah, _right_," she said, looking back at Angel. "This guy's really gotta be nuts, huh? I mean, if he's real, how can he do all that stuff he did in the novel; you told me yourself vampires can't do any of that in real life!"

"Believe me, I wish that was completely true," Angel said, sounding a bit nervous for a change. "He made a deal with some gypsies a while back; I don't know what they got out of it, but he got all the powers that people normally associate vampires with these days." He swallowed. "Believe me, Buffy, this guy's bad news."

"Oh, she knows," Dracula smirked. "Or at least, her present self knows."

Angel looked up at that.

"What?" he said. Not loudly, not shouting, just a normal voice. However, Buffy knew Angel well enough to know that was when he was at his most dangerous; when he looked that calm in the presence of evil, something was going to get hurt.

"Didn't you hear, Angelus?" Dracula smirked. "I fought the Slayer two years ago in her home town of Sunnydale. She was a challenge, but I still managed to pull off some… shall we say… interesting attacks?" He licked his lips. "She has very… tantalising blood, doesn't-"

* * *

Angel snapped.

Grabbing his sword, he drew his arm back and threw it directly at Dracula, impaling the ancient vampire on the lift wall behind him as the sword tore right through his stomach.

Growling, Angel shifted into his game face and walked towards Dracula. The lift doors started to close, but Angel placed his hands on them and forced them open again as he looked Dracula in the eyes.

"You bit her?" he asked Dracula.

Dracula, already a bit dazed by the sword through his chest, could only nod.

Angel growled and grabbed Dracula's throat. "I didn't like you that much when I met you the first time, Dracula," he said to the other vampire. "But after what you've done, even Angelus is screaming for your blood."

He leaned in towards Dracula, and whispered in the vampire's ear.

"Never forget; You don't touch my mate."

Then he flipped his wrist slightly, and a stake slid into his hand. Grabbing it, he drove it directly into Dracula's heart. Dracula's mouth opened in shock, and he collapsed into a pile of dust.

Buffy blinked in surprise as Angel stood up, dusting off his hands.

"Well… that was quick," she said, as he turned around to look at Angel.

Angel shook his head. "No, that was just a temporary measure," he said, as he hit the button to lock the elevator's doors and walked out just as they started to shut. "Dracula's practically unkillable by normal vampire means; all that'll do is slow him down for a while."

"Ah," Buffy said, as the two of them headed back towards Angel's car. "So," she said, after the two of them were sitting down again, "what's phase two?"

"What else?" Angel said, as he started the engine. "We head back to Wolfram & Hart, have Wesley look up a means of killing Dracula, and then we track him down again."

"Oh," Buffy said, as she settled back into her seat.

Then another thought occurred to her, and she looked back at Angel. "What was all that 'mate' stuff about?"

If it was possible for Angel to get any paler, he knew he'd have done so. He _really _didn't want to talk about this…

But he knew he had to.

"Well, in normal vampire relationships, vampires mark their life mates by biting them on the neck," Angel explained. "It was commonly used as a means of making sure no other vampire touched a human that another vampire wanted as a lover. And, well, since I bit you that time before Graduation that I mentioned…"

"Ah," Buffy said, nodding. "So, what, your basic instincts make you lash out at anyone else who tries to get at my neck?"

Angel just nodded, and hoped she'd leave it at that. He really didn't want to mention any other occasions when he'd lost it; he still found it hard not to lash out at Spike for even _touching _the present Buffy. For once, he and Angelus were in agreement on that front; neither of them found it easy to not remind Spike that, as his grandsire, they were perfectly at liberty to stake him for sleeping with their mate.

Yes, _their _mate. As much as Angel hated to admit it, in the vampire sense of the word, Buffy was as much Angelus's mate as she was his. The only thing that stopped Angel from constantly arguing with his demon every spare moment he got was the fact that…

But Angel couldn't go there.

She'd stopped wearing that ring long ago, giving it up and bringing him back from Hell. He could still feel it, hanging from his neck on the chain he'd brought all those years ago, along with its partner that had once been on his own finger. It was a small thing, he knew, but he always felt closer to her when he wore that chain.

But that was the past, even for this Buffy.

This was the present.

And they had a crisis to deal with before things got too far.

* * *

"Come _on_, Buffy, can't you even give me a little hint?" Dawn asked her sister as they sat on the plane. Buffy couldn't help but smile; ever since the first in-flight movie had ended (It had been _The One_; not exactly a favourite of Buffy's, but she'd seen a lot worse), Dawn had been constantly bugging her sister to tell her what the other reason was that she was going to Los Angeles.

"No," she said, turning to look out the window. "You'll see when we get there."

"Oh, come on, not even a _little _clue?" Dawn asked, sounding more and more desperate as things went on.

"No," Buffy said, grinning briefly as she looked back at her sister. "You're getting nothing. Now, if you'll excuse me…" she said, as she turned the minature TV by her seat on again and started watching another movie. This time it was _Sleepy Hollow_; a bit more her cup of tea, even if she did encounter things from it on a regular basis.

Somehow, she always liked films where someone else ended up facing the monsters other than her…

Pouting briefly, Dawn sat back in her chair in and stared at her own screen. Inwardly, however, she wasn't quite as bothered about the reason for this trip as she was making out; she was looking forward to seeing Xander and the others again.

_I wonder how Xander's doing…_ she briefly thought to herself.

* * *

_Dracula? _Buffy thought, as another image jumped into her mind, this one of Dracula collapsing into dust as Angel staked him.

_This is just getting _too_ weird…What's _causing _these things? _she thought to herself.

All she knew for sure was that the answers were in Los Angeles, with Angel, and she was going to get them.


	7. Arrivals And Removals

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Angel, or any associated characters; I just own this plot, Heure, and Brindil. I don't own Duana; he's a creation of Jaclyn Blackrose.

Feedback: Naturally

**mystripedskirt: **Glad you like it so far. Yeah, I agree with you; the Spike period was really, REALLY bad... What the hell was Joss thinking? Regarding the flashbacks… All will be revealed eventually.

**mickeyblueeyes: **Yeah, there are several possibilities, but you'll just have to wait and see how I have things work out…

**charisma: **Glad to hear the Angel/Dracula thing went down well, and I apologise for passing over PastBuffy's reaction to him biting her future self; I'll try and cover it more in this chapter.

**CF:** Hope that part will live up to your expectations; it's very close now…

**pinkyblue-ice:** Hope I didn't keep you waiting.

**melluvben:** I was hoping that bit would go down well.

**Buffy Fan:** Sorry, I'm a bit hazy there; what do you think needs an explanation?

**Buff:** I try my best.

**BeraMoon: **Yeah, you've got to pity her, but I promise you this; they _will _be explained soon.

**IWRY-ALWAYS: **Don't worry, he'll be more involved soon; I just wanted to give Angel the chance to get in his own little personal shot at Dracula before the big fight.

A Buffy from the Past

"Wait a minute… _Dracula_??!" Gunn said, staring at Angel as he and Buffy finished telling him what had happened on their search. "You're telling me that guy actually _exists_?!"

"Yes," Angel said simply, as he sat back in his chair and stared at the ceiling, as though trying to rest a bit in anticipation of his upcoming struggle with Dracula. "He made a deal with some gypsies a couple of centuries ago to get all the powers he had in Stoker's novel; it's unknown what they got out of it, but what he got? You've read the book; you can't deny it's effective."

Gunn nodded briefly and looked over at Buffy, where she was sitting staring into a mirror, her hair pushed back to expose her neck.

"What's up with her?" Gunn asked, indicating Buffy.

"She…" Angel sighed and looked up at Gunn. "She learned that Dracula bit her future self, Gunn. Not only that, she knows that _I _drank from her myself once-"

"_You_?!" Gunn interrupted. "Why'd _you _bite her?"

"I was poisoned, and the only cure was the blood of a Slayer," Angel replied, looking over at his friend. "She had to practically force me onto her neck before I'd give in and drink, even if I knew I'd die otherwise."

"Ah," Gunn said, looking back at the small Slayer. "So, what? She's trying to imagine what the bite mark looks like?"

Angel nodded. Gunn looked back at Buffy for a few seconds, and then shrugged. "I can't say I blame her," he said, looking back at Angel. "After all, it's gotta be a bit disconcerting to learn that she's going to get permanently scarred by the very things she's destined to fight."

Before Angel could reply to that, Wesley walked in, a large brown leather bag in his arms.

"Found it," he said, looking around at Angel and Buffy as he dumped the bag on the table.

* * *

"Found what?" Buffy asked, looking back at the man who would one day be her temporary Watcher. 

"A way to kill Dracula," Wesley said, as he opened the bag and pulled out a rather interesting assortment of weapons; a stake made out of solid silver, a gold axe, crucifixes with sharpened edges that looked like it could be thrown, what seemed to be small shrapnel grenades covered in some kind of biscuit and a thin layer of cling film, and a weapon that looked like a mechanical hand with sharpened nails.

"We need all this?" Buffy asked, looking up at Wesley.

"Not really," Wesley said, as he looked over at her. "They're all part of various individual methods of stopping him. The crucifixes would probably be best used to slow Dracula down before you impale him with the silver stake, but you'd need to cut his head off with the axe before he'd turned to dust if you want him to stay that way; apparently, gold and silver used in conjuncture will kill him if he's decapitated or fatally injured. That said, the grenades could also be used to slow him down; they're covered in holy wafers, which is one of the few weaknesses he actually has that aren't possessed by other vampires."

"Ah," Buffy said, before she picked up the hand-like weapon. "And this?"

"Strictly last resort measure," Wesley said, looking over at Angel and Gunn. "I assume you two remember our encounter with James a couple of years ago?"

* * *

Angel nodded. "How could I not?" he said, looking over at Buffy. "After what I was going through then…" 

"Yes, well," Wesley said, briefly sounding like his old bookish self for a few moments, "this hand basically allows us to do to Dracula what James had done to himself. Of course, the disadvantage is that Dracula, being a few centuries older then James, will last about twice as long as he did, but at least it gives us a chance."

"What?" Buffy said, looking over at Angel in confusion. "Who's James?"

"A vampire I knew back in my early decades as Angelus," Angel explained. "He was in love with this female vampire called Elizabeth, but couldn't take it after I'd staked her. He had a demon doctor remove his heart, turning him into a totally indestructible vampire; the only catch was that he'd die after six hours."

"Ah," Buffy said, nodding as she saw their train of thought. "So, if we stick this in Dracula, he'll die after… what, twelve hours?" Wesley nodded, and Buffy continued. "The only catch is that nothing can hurt him before then?" Wesley nodded again, and Buffy just shrugged. "Eh, I'm sure we'll manage."

Then a thought occurred to her and she looked over at Angel. "What were you going through back then?"

"I'm sorry?" Angel asked, looking up at Buffy.

"You said you were going through stuff back when you fought James," Buffy elaborated. "What kind of stuff was that?"

"Oh, that," Angel said, sighing slightly. He looked up at the ceiling, as though trying to decide what his next move should be, and then got up and walked towards the door. "I'll tell you in the car."

* * *

"Xander!" Dawn smiled, throwing her arms around her friend as soon as he'd gotten off the plane from Italy. His time in Africa had definitely been good for him; his arms were now noticeably more muscular, and his skin had a rough, weather-beaten look to it that Dawn, for one, found rather attractive… 

"Hey Willow," Buffy said, nodding at the young witch, who was holding hands with Kennedy. "How's things?"

"Oh, the usual," Willow smiled. "Everything's going pretty good over in Brazil; we found a couple of promising-looking Slayers down in Rio, and made arrangements for them to be transferred to England before we came here."

"On that topic, what _are_ we doing here?" Kennedy asked, looking curiously at Buffy. "I thought you made it clear you weren't interested in working with… Angel, right?" Buffy nodded, and Kennedy continued. "That you weren't working with him because you couldn't trust him after he took over that law firm?"

Buffy sighed. _I really should have made myself clearer…_ she thought to herself, before looking back at Kennedy.

"I didn't phrase it like that, Kennedy," she said. "I just told Andrew that I wasn't _sure _I could trust Angel's _crew _after they'd taken over Wolfram & Hart; I'm fairly sure he's reliable enough. Andrew just went and misunderstood what I'd told him."

"Ah," Kennedy said, sighing slightly. "So, is that why you're here? To tell Angel the truth?"

Buffy shrugged. "Well, that's involved in it," she said. "But I have another reason as well."

"Which is?" Xander asked, from where he was standing with a friendly arm around Dawn. Buffy smiled slightly at the huge grin on her sister's face; evidently, despite all her claims to the contrary, she was still utterly infatuated with Xander.

Buffy just smiled, a small, half-smile that she hoped made her look slightly enigmatic, but knew probably didn't achieve the desired effect; she was never able to carry that appearance off.

"You'll know soon enough, Xand," she said simply, before looking over at Willow. "When'll Faith be here?"

Willow glanced over at a nearby screen. "Her flight'll be here in about ten minutes," she said, looking back at her friend.

"Right," Buffy said, briefly feeling under her coat to check that Mr Pointy was still safe under her jacket before looking up at Willow. "Call a taxi, Will. Once she's here, we've got to get going."

"Wolfram & Hart?" Willow asked, as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a cellphone.

Buffy shook her head. "Nope; Burbank," she said.

Everyone looked at her in surprise, until Xander broke the silence.

"Huh?" he said simply. "Why're we going to Burbank?"

Buffy looked over at Xander. "You'll see when we get there," she said, silently adding _I hope_; if her 'memories' were just imagination or a spell she wasn't sure what she'd do. "Just trust me on this one, OK?"

* * *

"So, what were you dealing with when you tackled James?" Buffy asked, as they started to drive back towards Dracula's penthouse; even if he'd moved on since their last encounter, they still needed somewhere to start their search for him. 

Angel sighed and looked over at her. "It was during the period when you'd died, Buffy," he said. "That's what I was dealing with."

"Oh," Buffy said, not sure how to react to that. Eventually, she decided to just keep talking. "What did James have to do with that?"

"Well, I was a bit shaken by…. the whole thing, as you can guess," he explained, as he turned down another street. "Then, when James attacked me, he claimed I…" He stopped and sighed.

"He claimed what?" Buffy asked.

Angel sighed, and spoke so low that it was barely a whisper. "That I couldn't have loved you that much if I was able to keep going after you died."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "He'd obviously read too many romance novels," she said, as she looked over at him. "Angel, as far as I'm concerned, if you really loved me, the best thing you could do was to keep on going, and try to make a new life for yourself. If I died to save the world, I'd want you to make sure that my sacrifice wasn't in vain, if nothing else." She smiled at him. Angel smiled back for a brief moment, but turned his attention back to the road straight away.

"We're here," he said a few moments later, stopping the car and getting out, followed by Buffy, holding the bag of weaponry that Wesley had given them.

Laying it down on the floor, she pulled out the gold axe and tossed it to Angel. She pulled out the grenades and crufixes and slipped them into her pockets, keeping the silver stake in her hand before she put the bag back into the car, complete with the hand-weapon.

Noticing Angel's curious look after the bag, Buffy shrugged.

"Figured it wasn't worth the risk if there was an easier way," she said, indicating the bag. "Let's see what we can do with these things, shall we?"

"Please," Angel said, grinning as he waved his hand at the door in front of them.

They stepped inside the building.

Instantly, a bat flew down the steps beside the lift and transformed into the tall, regal form of Dracula, who simply smiled at the two warriors in front of him.

"Slayer," he said, nodding in Buffy's direction. "Angelus," he said, turning to Angel and inclining his head again.

"Dracula," the two of them said simultaneously.

Dracula smiled slightly.

Then Buffy leapt forward, aiming a kick at his head. With a look that could have been boredom on his face, Dracula turned into a cloud of dust and rematerialized behind her, only to get kicked in the back by Angel. As he fell forward, Dracula quickly regained his balance and swung around in mid air, landing back on his feet and launching a punch at Angel's head, which the other vampire only just managed to catch before it struck home.

Dracula looked Angel in the eye. "You have improved, Angelus," he said.

"A hundred years'll do that to you," Angel replied. Then a though occurred to him. "Did you ever give Spike and me our money back?"

Before Dracula could reply, something struck him in the side of the head and knocked him into the wall nearby.

Buffy looked down at him, shaking her fist slightly as he got to his feet.

"Keep an eye on the surroundings, Drac," she smiled. "It'll save you a lot of pain, believe me."

Growling, Dracula leapt onto Buffy, punching her in the face while simultaneously kicking out at Angel. Buffy managed to roll with the punch, but Angel was sent crashing out of the doors of the building, hitting his car.

"Angel!" Buffy yelled, briefly distracted by her… boyfriend's (?)… plight.

"He shall live," Dracula said, from where he was standing behind her. "You may not."

Not even speaking, Buffy swung around, pulled something out of her pocket, and stuffed it into Dracula's pocket before she leapt up into the air and kicked him in the face, briefly disorienting him as she leapt back.

Growling at her, Dracula started to walk towards her, but was suddenly struck by a blinding pain in his side that threw him into the wall from the sheer force of the blast.

"Holy wafer grenade, Dracula," Buffy said, as he looked down at his burned and smoking side with an almost scientific detachment behind his gaze. "It won't kill you, but it will slow you down."

"Long enough for us to finish this," a voice said from behind her.

"Angel!" Buffy smiled, looking back to see the vampire standing beside her. He had a slight cut above one eye, but otherwise looked like he was in good health. The golden axe was clasped in his hands, held in a manner that made it look ready for use at a moment's notice. "You OK?"

"I'll be better when he goes down," Angel said, indicating Dracula, who was starting to get back to his feet.

"Right," Buffy said, raising the stake to shoulder-height. "Hit him hard, Angel!" she yelled, as she leapt towards Dracula, Angel beside her with the axe raised.

Looking up at them, Dracula dived to one side as though trying to avoid them, but the silver stake still ended up lodged in his chest, and Angel definitely felt the axe pass _through_ something before Dracula turned to dust.

The two of them looked down at the collapsed pile of dust, and then Buffy looked over at Angel.

"Is that it?" she asked him, indicating the pile of dust. "Is that Dracula dead?"

Angel shrugged. "Hard to say," he said. "I definitely hit something, but as he was moving at the time it's hard to be sure what it was; I could have just grazed his shoulder, or-"

Then he stopped talking, and stared at the pile of dust that marked where Dracula had fallen. Buffy looked around herself, and swore at the sight; the dust was merging once again.

Instantly, she and Angel automatically raised their weapons, watching as Dracula reformed in front of them…

… Minus his left arm. Evidently, when he'd duck to the side, his arm had been held up a bit higher than his head, and Angel's axe had hit him in the elbow rather then the neck, depriving him of half the arm, which hadn't reconstituted.

Dracula looked down at his arm with an almost sceptical expression on his face, and then looked up at Buffy and Angel, a slight smile at the corner of his mouth.

"Interesting," he said casually. Then he shrugged, "I must fly for now."

Then he turned into a bat and flapped off past them, heading towards the shattered door.

"Oh no you don't!" Buffy yelled, grabbing one of the crucifixes from her pocket and running after the bat. "You're not getting away that easily!" she yelled, as the Dracula-Bat flapped up into the air. Standing in the street, she aimed and threw the sharpened crucifix at the bat, but fell several feet short of the mark. She could only watch as Dracula flew away, ready to fight another day.

* * *

"Damnit!" she said, looking back at Angel. "He got away!" 

"Look on the bright side," Angel said, smiling at Buffy. "We've crippled him, even if only for a time; he might be able to regrow the arm given time, but I personally doubt he'll be back to full strength any time soon."

Buffy sighed. "Yeah, I know we did a good job and all, but still…" She sighed. "It really gets to me that he managed to get away. We were _that _close…"

She couldn't keep standing anymore. She just turned to face Angel and collapsed into his arms, suddenly sobbing into his shoulder.

"I just can't _take _it, Angel!" she said, as she cried into his shoulder. "I saw you die, you're here in front of me, I'm stuck in the future, and now I've got Dracula on my back and some unknown bad guy wanting me dead and I don't even have the slightest idea how to get home!"

She looked him in the eyes, her face covered with tears, and Angel felt his heart break. He leaned in and kissed her, trying to make her forget, even if only for a little while, about all the problems they had to deal with at the moment.

"Oh my god."

Angel froze.

He _knew _that voice…

He broke away from Buffy and looked down the street in the direction of the voice. Standing there, looking at him and Buffy with expressions that mixed both shock, confusion and anger were all the surviving members of the Scooby Gang. Xander, Dawn, Willow, Faith, a dark-haired girl that Angel could only assume was Kennedy, based on what he'd heard about the current Sunnydale situation, and…

Buffy.

The present-day Buffy.

And as Angel looked down at the small Slayer in his arms, as she stared in amazement at her old friends and her future self, he could only think of one thing to say.

_Bugger…_ he thought to himself, and then groaned. 

_I've been spending too much time with Spike._


	8. When Buffy Met Buffy

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Angel, or any associated characters; I just own this plot, Heure, and Brindil. I don't own Duana; he's a creation of Jaclyn Blackrose.

Feedback: Naturally

**Buff: **Thank you

**CarineM: **I did my best; glad it went down well.

**mz.sarJe: **Thank you for that; I try my best, particularly since this is my first major Buffy/Angel fanfic.

**Mickeyblueeyes: **Way ahead of you there, my friend; I was already planning for some of the Scoobies to make _that _little assumption. However, I'm afraid there will be no Buffy vs. Buffy action, but I _do_ have a couple of other 'twin' fights planned…

**Charisma: **1. I wouldn't have included it if you hadn't pointed out the lack of it in the first chapter, so I'm glad you liked it.

2. Thanks; I figured a couple of little digs couldn't hurt.

3. Well, I did what I could; wait until you see the reactions of the gang to the other Buffy…

**mione:** Sorry, but cliffhangers are an essential part of my writing; you'll have to learn to deal with them.

**CF: **Hope it lives up to your expectations.

**urangel:** Well, Buffy won't be beating Angel or her past self up, but that's all I can guarantee. Just wait until you see what's coming up…

**a2zmom: **I did my best; glad to hear that Dracula's been challenging.

**melluvben:** It had to happen sooner or later, but I hope it works out as well as you were hoping.

**mystripedskirt: **Yeah, it should be interesting to see how she reacts to Dawn, I'll give you that.

**IWRY- ALWAYS: **I just did what I could; glad to hear that it's going well. And believe me, if you liked the Dracula fight, you're going to _love _the fight ideas I've got lined up for the future…

**Tariq: **If nothing else, her reaction to Spike should be worth seeing…

**Scourge of Europe: **I do what I can, Scourge; always glad to hear it's well-liked

**Emily: **Sorry if I kept you waiting, but I hope this was worth it.

**Never look back: **If you liked what's happened so far, wait until you see what I've got planned for later…

**C'est Magnifique: **Sorry, he won't be here; I never saw any of the episodes where he appeared, so I don't exactly feel like I could write him with any degree of authenticity.

A Buffy from the Past

Buffy couldn't even speak.

As she stared at the scene in front of her, she wasn't even sure what to think; relief that her memories were real, confusion as to why she was experiencing these memories now, or jealousy at the fact that Angel was in another woman's arms.

OK, admittedly, the woman was _her _from a few years ago, but still… It wasn't exactly easy to get around that.

However, before she could think of anything else to say about the situation, Xander beat her to it.

"You are sick," he said to Angel.

"What?" Dawn asked, looking over at Xander in confusion- which, Buffy had to confess, she was feeling herself right now. "What do you mean, he's sick?"

"Well, _look _at him!" Xander yelled, pointing an accusing finger at Angel. "He couldn't have Buffy, so he's gone and made his own one!"

He turned to look at Angel, disgust evident on his face and in his voice. "Who was she, Angel? Some hooker you thought you were giving a better life? Just some random you picked from where you sat in your proverbial high tower, lording it over the rest of us?" Another thought seemed to occur to him, and he looked at Angel in shock. "Was she a _Slayer_!"

"Xander?" Buffy said, tapping her friend on the shoulder. He turned around, curious as to what she had to say…

And she slapped him in the face, sending him flying to the ground.

"HEY!" Dawn said, crouching down beside Xander as she looked back up at Buffy. "What did you do that for?"

Buffy didn't even answer her sister. She just turned to look at Xander as he lay there on the ground, clutching his bruised and rapidly reddening cheek as he looked up at her.

"_Don't _talk about Angel like that, OK?" she said to her friend. "He doesn't deserve it."

"But… but he…he… look at the copy!" Xander yelled, jabbing his finger towards the other Buffy, still clasped in Angel's arms as he looked at the others.

Buffy looked at her past self, staring at her in confusion and apprehension, and then sighed and looked back at Xander.

"You don't get it, do you, Xand?" she said, sighing. "That's not a copy of me. That _is _me."

Xander blinked.

"Wh… what?" Willow asked, looking at her friend in confusion. "What do you mean, she's you?"

"I mean what I say, Will," Buffy said, looking back at her friend. "Some demon's cast a spell that pulled my past self into this time, Angel rescued her from the demon, and they've been trying to track him down before he could make another attempt on my… her… our life."

Buffy heard a slight cough from behind her, and turned around to look at her past self.

"Um… how do you know all this?" the other Buffy asked, looking at her curiously. Buffy was almost surprised at how well she seemed to fit into Angel's arms; had she ever felt as comfortable as she seemed to feel there with Riley? Or Spike…?

But she shook it off.

This wasn't the time for that.

"Well, I'm not really sure," Buffy explained, as she tried to look at Angel and not focus on her past self; it was disturbing enough having another version of her running about, she'd rather not have to deal with being jealous of herself. "It's just… well, ever since you arrived, I've been having memory flashes of… well, this," she said, indicating her and Angel. "You kissing Angel, learning about Heure, hitting Spike…"

She turned to Angel at that. "Really not happy you never told me he was back, by the way."

"Spike's alive?" Faith said, looking over at Buffy in confusion.

* * *

"Oh boy…" Angel said, looking more then slightly nervous about where this might go, as he finally took his arms off Buffy's past self and looked at the other Slayer directly. "In my defence, Faith, I _thought_ you all should know, but he didn't want anyone to tell you guys."

_Well, it's mostly the truth_, he told himself. _No point mentioning the fact that I was worried that Buffy'd_ _go back to him once she learned he wasn't dead…_

Buffy blinked. "Really?" she said, surprised. "Why'd he do that?"

Angel looked back at Buffy, and his shoulders slumped slightly as he took her in. He'd never tell her, but somehow, whenever he saw her, it always calmed him down; even Angelus stopped yelling at him for a time when Buffy was around.

"I think he said that he thought that it would make his 'sacrifice' to save the world… irrelevant," he replied, looking at her carefully as he tried to gauge her reaction to that news.

"Um… you'll be wanting to see him, I guess?" he added after a moment's pause, half-hoping she'd say no; he didn't know if he could handle it if Buffy chose Spike over him now that she actually had a choice.

Buffy stared back at him for a few minutes, and then sighed.

"I dunno, Angel," she said, looking at him again. "I mean, he was there to pick up the pieces when I was… y'know…" she said, reluctant to go into too much detail with him on a topic he'd probably heard enough about from Spike. "But, well, if he couldn't even care enough to let me know he was still alive because it would diminish his last moments…"

She sighed again, and looked over at him. "At least when you didn't let me know you were in Sunnydale your reasons weren't so selfish."

* * *

"What?" PastBuffy asked, looking up at Angel curiously. "What does she mean, when you didn't tell her you were in Sunnydale?"

"Ah, that," Angel said, looking over at Buffy accusingly. She just shrugged helplessly, and Angel turned back to her past self. "Well, it's not as bad as it sounds. I just dropped in on Sunnydale the Thanksgiving after I left to help you fight some ancient Indian spirits, and didn't tell you I was there because I… well, I worried it might throw you off your game."

"Oh," PastBuffy said. What else was there to say? That was one of the almost annoying things about Angel; she could never stay mad at him for all that long, no matter what he'd done to her in the first place.

Then, as though only just remembering there were others there, she turned to look at the gathering in front of her. Her eyes instantly went to the three people she didn't know; three brunettes, one of them holding Willow's hand, a second wearing leather and a slightly haunted expression on her face, and a third one, younger then the others, who Buffy instinctively knew was Dawn, the 'sister' Angel had mentioned. Based on that assumption, the brunette holding Willow's hand must be Kennedy, and the third girl must be Faith, Kendra's successor.

Deciding she might as well say something to them, PastBuffy tried to smile casually at the two other Slayers, despite the fact that her mind was still unable to cope with the idea of Willow as a lesbian.

_I mean, _Willow_…!_ She thought to herself.

"Hi," she said to the two of them. "Faith and Kennedy, right?"

The two girls nodded, looking at PastBuffy with almost as much confusion as she was sure she was looking at them.

"You're… you're really B from the past?" Faith asked, looking at PastBuffy in amazement.

"Well, if 'B' is what you call me, then yes. Yes I am," PastBuffy said, nodding to Faith. "Glad to meet you, by the way." She looked over at Kennedy. "Same to you, by the way; take care of Willow."

Kenedy smiled. "I will," she promised, clasping Willow's hand even tighter.

PastBuffy smiled back in thanks, and then turned to look at Dawn; best to get this rather confusing moment out of the way as soon as possible.

"So… you're my sister?" she asked, trying not to sound as disturbed by that sentence as she felt. "How's that working out for you?"

"Oh… um…. Fine, I guess," Dawn said, shaking her hand uncertainly. "So… you don't remember me?" she asked PastBuffy curiously.

"What?" PastBuffy asked, looking at Dawn in confusion. "Why would I remember you; Angel told me you were created only a couple of years ago?"

"Oh, it's just that, well, whenever we've met someone we used to know before Dawn here existed, their memories always automatically adjusted to accommodate her into them," Xander explained, as he finally got up and looked at PastBuffy curiously. "Are… are you really from the past?"

PastBuffy shrugged. "Yeah, I am," she said, trying to make it sound like it wasn't a big deal.

"If you don't mind me asking, when in the past?" Xander asked, looking at Buffy with a slightly pleading expression, as though he wanted her to forget everything he'd just said.

_Fat chance_, PastBuffy thought to herself, as she looked over at Xander.

"Here's a hint," she said simply.

She drew back her fist and punched Xander in the face, knocking him to the ground again, this time with a bloody mouth.

"_That _was for not telling me Willow was trying the curse again!" she yelled at him, as he turned to look at her in confusion, blood tricking over his lip and a large bruise forming on his cheek.

"Oh," Willow said simply, as she looked over at PastBuffy. "So you're from just after… you know… Alcathla?"

PastBuffy nodded. "Yeah, I am," she said simply. Then she cocked her head to one side and looked quizzically at Willow. "Did you actually tell Xander to tell me to kick Angel's ass?"

Willow shook her head.

"Right," Buffy said, turning back to Xander and crouching down to look him in the face.

"Xander?" she asked him sweetly.

Xander looked up at her.

PastBuffy punched him again, this time leaving him with a black eye as he collapsed back onto the ground.

"That was for lying!" she yelled at him, as he looked at her in pain and confusion.

Then she stood up and looked back at her future self, still standing awkwardly beside Angel. PastBuffy sighed as she watched the two of them; had she and Angel really grown that far apart in the past few years?

Then again, the inability to actually _do_ anything serious without running the risk of releasing Angelus probably had something to do with it…

"Sorry about that," she said, looking back at Xander briefly before turning back to her other self. "I mean, I don't know how _you _reacted to that when you got back, but, well… you had a few months to cope with it. I haven't."

* * *

"Fair enough, if you ask me," a voice said from off to the side. "Personally, though, I'd just kill him for it, but to each his own, after all."

Instantly, the gang swung around in the direction of the voice…

And stared at the speaker in surprise.

It looked, at first glance, like a man dressed in a business suit for an office. However, looking at him for longer then one seconds, you quickly realized that the right side of the suit was a dull white in colour, while the left side was as black as a vast forest at midnight.

The demon's skin was also a vast contrast on both sides; his right hand was a light grey, that managed to go with the white side of the suit fairly well, while the left hand was a dark purple, and looked like it had been disfigured by being shoved in acid.

However, it was the demon's face that drew the most attention. The right side of it was so smooth and featureless it might as well have been a statue's face; even the eye was a blank grey rather then having an iris or pupil. The left side, on the other hand, was the same as the left hand; purple, twisted and disfigured like it had been burnt, with the eye nearly bulging out of its socket and a small red horn sticking out of the forehead.

The gathering on the street stared at the demon in confusion for a few moments, until Faith broke the silence.

"So, did Two-Face come after you, or did he inspire this weird look?" she asked the demon, looking him up and down. "Gotta say, if you're trying to intimidate us, I'm not exactly impressed."

The demon smirked as he looked over at her, revealing sharp teeth on the purple side of his mouth and normal, human-like teeth on the other.

"You'd be Faith, I assume?" he said, looking at her with a almost approving expression. Then he sighed. "Too bad the split isn't as obvious as with the others; the more the merrier, after all."

"What?" Kennedy said, staring at the man in confusion. "What are you talking about? Who are you?"

"Oh, forgive me, ma'am," the demon said, turning to her and raising his hand in a manner that looked like he was raising a hat. "My name is Duelle, and I have business with two of your number."

"Don't count on it," Buffy said, stepping forward to face Duelle more directly. "Neither of us," she said, indicating her past self as she spoke, "are going down easily."

Duelle chuckled. "You?" he said, looking at Buffy arrogantly. "Whoever said I wanted you?"

Then he looked over Buffy's shoulders at Angel and Willow, who had automatically stepped forward to provide aid if need be. "I'm interested in you two."

Before anyone could react, Duelle raised both his hands and fired two black-and-white beams directly at the vampire and the witch, striking them both in the face before vanishing almost as swiftly as they'd arrived.

* * *

Angel and Willow collapsed to the ground, and Duelle just smiled and vanished, the Slayers in the group too shaken at what had happened to even think about attacking him.

Then they realised what had happened.

"ANGEL!" the Buffys yelled, diving towards their fallen lover in horror.

"WILLOW!" Kennedy and Faith cried out, as they crouched down to examine their fallen friend, leaving Dawn to keep an eye on a bruised and battered Xander.

Kennedy leaned over Willow's face and briefly held her lips above Willow's, as though thinking about kissing her, before standing up at looking over at Faith.

"She's breathing, but that's all I can get at the moment," she said to the other Slayer.

"Lucky you; we don't even have that!" PastBuffy yelled over at the others, before turning back to look at Angel's still form. She looked up at her future self. "Any ideas?"

* * *

Buffy sighed as she looked between the still forms of the vampire that would be always be the love of her life and her best friend.

She knew she only had one option.

She just wished she could be more certain about the people who'd be giving it.

"Get them to Wolfram & Hart," she said, looking over at the others.

Then she looked back down at Angel and sighed sadly.

_Here we go again, Angel_…she thought, as she reached down and ran one finger along the side of his cheek, as though trying to memorize every single detail on his face.

_Why does it always end up this way whenever we meet these days?_


	9. Nightmares of the Past

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Angel, or any associated characters; I just own this plot, Heure, and Brindil. I don't own Duana; he's a creation of Jaclyn Blackrose.

Feedback: Naturally

**Buff:** Glad to hear it; hope I didn't keep you waiting

**mz.sarJe:** No, that's as far as the Xander-bashing goes; I just figured PastBuffy should vent her anger at him for lying to her before she got too far into the story

**X-identaty:** Thank you; here it is

**A2zmom:** Fair point, but you have to take into account that, technically, Buffy's _already _forgiven Xander for lying to her; Angel just thought it would be best to let Buffy vent her rage right then

**wackycavegirl:** Don't worry, I'm not giving up on this any time soon; hope I didn't keep you waiting too long

**C'est Magnifique:** Nope, they won't; hope you don't mind, but I really HATE Spuffy….

**charisma:** Glad it went down well; I was a bit worried about the Xander thing, but I figured it had to be done.

**WhiteWolf 3:** Sorry about that, but I figured Past Buffy needed to vent her anger at him.

**MysticWolf1:** You'll just have to se how this goes; I'll be trying to develop the relationship a bit, but I am principally a B/A man all the way

**Freezyboncoolipants:** Hope this goes down well

**IWRY-ALWAYS:** Believe me, when Duana's plans are revealed, you're definitely going to be surprised…

**never look back:** Hope it lives up to your expectations

**CarineM:** That's good; I was worried that it wouldn't go down very well

**Scourge of Europe: **Maybe it was, but I felt it had to be done; after all, it's hardly the kind of thing Buffy's just going to let go, is it?

**Graga Serrs:** Believe me, you thought what happened so far was interesting? Wait until you've read this chapter.

AN: I acknowledge that this chapter is far longer then any of my earlier ones, but I just couldn't cut it down.

A Buffy from the Past

Duana smiled as he looked at the beautiful brunette standing in front of him. He'd been expecting that they'd send her, of course- she was one of their most devoted operatives, even in death- but still, he hadn't been expecting her to be quite so… attractive.

Or quite so openly turned on by his appearance.

Oh, maybe not exactly all that openly, he had to admit, but he'd been around quite a bit in his lifetime, and could tell when women found him attractive fairly easily now. She wasn't exactly making it obvious, he had to admit, but the faint shifting of her feet, the faint blush creeping up her cheeks…

It all added up to a pretty obvious picture.

At least, obvious for him.

"So, Miss Morgan, those are my terms," he said, turning his attention back to the matter at hand. He'd gone to a lot of trouble to gather his warriors so far, but if this didn't pay off, all that work would be for nothing. "Do the Senior Partners accept them, or does this have to get unpleasant?"

"For who?" Lilah smiled, pushing a strand of hair back from out of her eyes and looking at him quizzically. "After all, if you've really recruited who you say you've recruited, I doubt that we'd be able to put your side down easily."

"Miss Morgan, do not try to appeal to my vanity, please?" Duana asked, sighing in an overdramatic manner as he looked at her. "We both know it wouldn't do any good, and your attempts are therefore demeaning to both of us."

He looked her in the eyes again, taking up his professional posture once again. "Besides, I am aware of the power possessed by the Senior Partners; even with my best allies, I doubt I could last against them for long without the aid of the Powers That Be at the very least. No, I want your, and therefore their, guarantee, that I can proceed with my plan while considering them at my back for the big finale, and then I shall take it from there. Is that understood?"

Lilah smiled slightly as she nodded. "You've got a deal, Duana," she said. "On one condition."

"Which is?" Duana replied casually.

"The Partners won't be seeking revenge if your 'Circle' ends up dead," she said, raising her fingers in quote marks for the word 'Circle'. "They're prepared to give you a chance, but if you fall down, nobody's getting killed in retaliation."

Duana simply smiled. "I assure you, Miss Morgan, that once I have succeeded, it won't matter in the slightest whether or not the other members of my 'Circle' are alive or not," he said casually. "So long as I am alive, the Partners shall get the Apocalypse they desire; I don't really care about the others."

Lilah smiled. "Good," she said. "In that case, feel free to make your move."

* * *

"Any luck?" Wesley asked Fred, where she sat pouring over one of the volumes he'd picked up from the library. With Angel and Buffy covering the legwork for their current investigation, Wesley and Fred were looking over their books for any extra information that might help pinpoint the mastermind behind this operation, while Gunn and Spike (Aided by a reluctant Harmony) went over their legal records to see if they had a file on Heure or Dracula that they could use to track them down.

Unfortunately, Wesley didn't know about the others, but his end of the investigation hadn't been going well.

"Not really," Fred sighed, as she looked up at Wesley, brushing a lock of hair out of her face. "It's just frustrating; every time I find a likely looking demon with the power and ambition to get Heure and Dracula on their proverbial payroll, it turns out they died, or they hate vampires, or they just don't think ahead that much."

She sighed. "Still, at least this can't get any-"

"We need a… medical guy of some kind!" a voice yelled from the door of the meeting room.

Wesley spun around in the direction of the door.

And froze.

Buffy was standing in the door, Angel's large form slumped beside her, with one arm over her shoulders. However, as shocking as that was, Wesley couldn't deny he hadn't been expecting it; Dracula was a powerful opponent, even for two warriors like Buffy and Angel.

No, what was really a shock to Angel was the fact, on Angel's other side, dressed in more contemporary clothing (As least, Wesley thought it was; he never really followed fashions of any kind) was…

"Buffy?" he said in confusion, as Fred looked up and blinked in surprise at the sight. Then again, Wesley couldn't exactly blame her; he'd never seen anything quite like this himself.

* * *

"How long do we have to wait?" one of the Legion of the Fell Brethren asked its leader, as they lounged around in the hotel room that they'd booked when they'd arrived in L.A. They'd been trying to arrange a meeting with the heads of Wolfram & Hart for the past two weeks to discuss custody of the child that would be their sacrifice, but, so far, the vampire had always apparently managed to find some way to reschedule the meeting.

"Oh, it can't be that much longer," the leader said aimlessly, trying not to show how much the delay bothered him as well. "Give the vampire another week or so and we'll have the meeting; he knows that he has to do it, eventually."

"No no no," a voice said from outside the door. "You'll find that Daddy's weaker side doesn't have to do anything he doesn't want to do, no matter how much we may wish it were otherwise."

"What?" another member of the Brethren said, looking at the door curiously. "Who's that?"

He walked towards the door….

And suddenly it flew off its hinges, striking the Brethren member in the face and sending him flying into the nearby wall.

The remaining members of the Brethren stared in horror at the figure that came walking through the door. It was a tall woman, elegant and beautiful in her own way, clad in a long, tight red gown that reached down to around her ankles. There was a glint of madness in her eyes, and her long dark hair stretched down behind her in a manner that, somehow, only added to the terror that her appearance created.

The Brethren knew who this was, of course. You couldn't know about Angelus and not be aware of the existence of Drusilla, his most famous childe.

She smiled at them.

"Hello, my ugly little friends," she said, grinning broadly. Then her smile vanished, and she raised her hands in a combat stance. "Time for you to die now; my Daddy told me so."

* * *

"Yeah, hi Wes, Fred, good to see you two again, can you just help us out right now, please?" Buffy asked, indicating the large vampire between her and her past self.

"Oh my god..." Fred whispered as she looked between the two Buffys for a few seconds before she finally spoke. "Have you touched?"

"What?" PastBuffy asked, looking over at Fred. "What do you mean, have we touched?"

"You know, all those issues about the same matter being unable to exist in two different paces at the same time?" Fred said. "I mean, the complications of two different versions of you existing at once…. Matter isn't meant to exist in two separate locations simultaneously… what if-?"

Buffy held up her hand. "Easy, Fred," she said, trying to sound calm. "We acknowledge your point, but we've already come in contact while hauling Angel up here, and nothing averse has happened to the fabric of reality so far." Then she paused, looked over at her past self, and shrugged. "At least, nothing that wasn't up with it already."

Wesley sighed. "Fred, can we focus on the matter at hand?" he asked the young woman, before turning back to look at the Buffys and the unconscious Angel, who they'd now lain down on the meeting table. "What happened to him?" he asked PastBuffy curiously.

"Demon," PastBuffy replied simply. "Looked a bit like Two-Face if he was an albino and was part-lizard rather than just disfigured. He zapped Angel and Willow with some strange kind of black-and-white beam, knocked them out, and then just vanished into thin air. Any ideas?"

Wesley blinked.

"Did…. did you say. Willow?" he asked Buffy, looking at his former Slayer in surprise.

"Yeah, the gang's all here, Wes!" another voice said from the door. Turning around, Wesley was only partly surprised to see the forms of a slightly battered Xander Harris and an apparently well Faith holding up the unconscious, red-haired form of Willow Rosenberg, while Dawn Summers and another girl who Wesley didn't recognize milling around behind them.

Wesley sighed inwardly.

_Just when I thought things couldn't get any more confusing…_

* * *

"So, how's the campaign plan coming along?" Senator Bruckner asked Ersteno curiously, as her vampire aide shifted through the papers in her office.

"Oh, the usual sort of issues," Ernesto commented, as he glanced up from his desk at her once again. "We can't seem to get around this Mike Conley character; there's just something about him that makes him more appealing."

He looked up at her. "Maybe we should consider asking Angelus for assistance?"

Bruckner shook her head, a smile on her face. "Quite frankly, I'm not sure I could trust him not to mess things us deliberately nowadays," she said casually. "You know my policy; if the head of Wolfram & Hart isn't at least trying to get into the Circle, I can't be sure he'll help me."

"A wise policy," a new voice said from outside the door of the campaign headquarters. "Too bad you shall never live to find an alternative."

Senator Bruckner turned around to see who was talking.

And blinked in shock at the tall, regal, elegantly-dressed, one-armed man who was standing in the door.

"Dracula?" she whispered; she'd met him a while back when he'd been nominated for membership in the Circle. He had declined at the time, claiming that he preferred to operate on his own, but if he was here now…

He drew a sword that had been hanging on his back, and Bruckner swallowed.

She was pretty sure this wasn't going to work out well for her.

* * *

"So, can you give us anything else on this demon that attacked you?" Fred asked Xander as the two of them poured over a book, while Dawn and Wesley looked over another one. Following quick introductions (Although only Kennedy had needed any, the others had all worked together in the past, no matter how briefly it had been), the two Buffys, along with Faith and Kennedy, had taken Angel and Willow off to the hospital wing, leaving the other four to check over the books and try and find any answers as to what the demon was that had attacked them.

"No, you've pretty much got everything we know," Xander said, shrugging. "His name's Duelle, apparently, he dresses and looks a bit like Two-Face, and he shoots this freaky black-and-white beam at people that makes them collapse, but for some reason he only went for Dead-Boy and Willow." Then he looked up at the ceiling, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Wait a moment…"

"What?" Fred asked, looking up at Xander curiously.

"Well… it may be nothing, but when the guy was facing Faith, he said something about how it was a shame that the 'split' wasn't as clean as it was with the others…. or something like that," Xander said, looking back at Fred. "That any help?"

Fred nodded thoughtfully. "Maybe…" she said, as she reached over, picked up a nearby notebook, and started to flick through it. "If we tried to figure out what Willow and Angel have in common that_ almost_ includes Faith in the mix, maybe we can get a better idea of what his powers are."

Xander nodded. "Right," he said, as he looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully.

"Anything?" Fred asked the young man after a few moments.

"Well. they're both Champions who aren't part of some massive destiny…. thing like Buffy is?" Xander suggested hopefully. "And Faith is, well, _almost_ along those lines, due to her briefly going rogue on us five years ago?"

Fred shook her head. "Doesn't work," she said. "On that argument, Duelle could have gone for any one of the rest of you if all he wanted was to knock you out; there has to be something more specific…"

* * *

Izzy looked up from the table to glance in the direction of Marrianna Escabor, a vampire who had recently been appointed to the Circle.

"So, how has everything been recently on that island of yours?" he asked inquiringly, as he passed her a raw steak. "I understand you finally managed to kill your husband?"

"Yes, indeed," Marianna replied, taking the steak and biting into it. "It wasn't exactly easy, but I think he got my point." Then she shrugged casually. "Well, actually he got my bullets, but it doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?"

Izzy laughed. "No, it doesn't," he smiled, as he reached over and poured himself another glass of wine as he turned to another member of the circle. "So, tell me-"

Suddenly, a loud crash echoed from outside the dining room.

"What the….?" Izzy asked, leaping to his feet and staring at the door, closely followed by the other diners.

A figure stepped through it, tall and imposing, dressed only in a dark grey pair of trousers. The figure's main body was a disturbing amalgamation of man, demon, and machine; its right eye and most of the right side of its head was that of a human male, but the rest of his head was a demonic-looking green; his left cheek even had a large metal plate on it. Similar plates adorned the left side of his chest, and he had a large device that resembled a gun on his right arm, while the rest of his body resembled something that had been thrown together by Doctor Frankenstein.

Izzy blinked in surprise. He remembered this character from files a few years back; an experiment by some demon-investigating government branch that the Black Thorn had manipulated slightly in order to create a new breed of super-solider.

But surely the Slayer had _destroyed_ the subject?

"Adam?" Izzy asked inquiringly, taking a cautious step forward.

The cyborg (_Or should that be triborg?_ Izzy wondered irrelevantly) turned to look at him, and grinned.

Izzy swallowed.

This wasn't good.

* * *

"We need a doctor!" Faith yelled, as she kicked down the door of the Wolfram & Hart science division, Willow slumped over her and Kennedy's shoulders.

"I'm sorry; you are?" one of the men asked, looking over at the two Slayers curiously.

"For God's sake, this place tried to employ me four years ago!" Faith yelled, as she shrugged Willow's arm off her shoulders, walked over to the doctor, grabbed him by the jacket, and hauled him up until his feet were at least half a metre of the ground.

Faith looked the man in the eye as he whimpered nervously.

"I'm Faith, the vampire slayer," she said to him casually. "The girl back there is Kennedy, another Slayer, the redhead is Willow, a witch who helped your boss out at least twice, and we have that selfsame boss coming right behind us with two different versions of the same person, who share the common feature of being madly in love with him no matter what they've gone through over the years, so either you help us out now, or I'll forget that I don't do that sort of thing any more and break your neck." She brought him down slightly so that they were more directly eye-to-eye. "Got that?"

The man nodded shakily.

"Good," Faith said, as she placed him back down on the ground again. "Now, get that equipment out, OK? You've got some scans to make."

* * *

Sebassis thoughtfully sipped at the glass he held in his hand, and mused on recent events.

Overall, he had to admit that things were going well. The vampire's appointment to control of Wolfram & Hart had left several members of the Circle worried, but, personally, Sebassis was very relaxed about the whole affair; he had experience with power, and he was sure that it would only be a matter of time before the vampire's new power corrupted him.

Then…

He smiled.

Then, it might very well be worth the Circle's time to see about recruiting him for their cause. After all, Angelus had the potential to be a valuable ally in the Circle if he became a member…

He cocked his head on one side curiously, as he heard a faint thud from outside his building.

"Go and see what that is, will you?" he asked the servant that was standing beside him; he briefly found himself grateful that he hadn't felt too thirsty at the present, otherwise he'd have to go and check it out himself.

"Of course, Master," the servant said. He turned to face the door, walked towards it…

Only to be met by both of the double doors as they flew off their hinges, striking the servant's frail form directly in the face, and leaving him sprawled on the ground, practically flattened.

As Sebassis stared at the sight in front of him in horror, a large figure stepped through the door. It was over six feet tall, almost reaching a towering seven in height, with dark brownish skin covered in thin red lines, with golden eyes and long white horns sticking up out of its head.

Sebassis gulped. He knew this creature well; it had, after all, been responsible for the destruction of the previous L.A. branch of Wolfram & Hart, and nearly triggered an early Apocalypse with the aid of its 'Master'.

The Beast.

As it turned towards him, Sebassis briefly wondered if his army would manage to do much damage to the Beast after he was dead, or if it would cut through them as easily as it had cut through the old Wolfram & Hart employees…

* * *

"What the bloody hell is going on here?" Spike yelled, as he kicked the door open and charged into the science division, waving a folder in his hand as he spoke. "I go to all that sodding effort of trying to track down those records, and now I hear that the poof's gone and gotten himself…."

He froze, and stared at the sight in front of him in a mix of both horror and joy.

"Buffy….?" he whispered, as she, her past self, Faith and Kennedy turned around to look at him.

He swallowed nervously.

This couldn't be good.

"Spike," Buffy said, nodding briefly at him. She turned to look at her fellow Slayers. "Could you excuse me for a few moments?"

* * *

"Um. sure?" PastBuffy said, deciding she'd better speak for the others. As her future self walked out of the room, just a bit behind Spike, she looked over at Faith and Kennedy curiously. "What's up between…. us…. now?" she asked, indicating the door that 'she'd' just walked out of.

Faith sighed. "Short version?" she asked PastBuffy casually. PastBuffy nodded. "Basically, Spike fell in love with you after he got his chip, you had a sorta relationship when you came back to life because you needed some stress relief, you broke it off, Spike got his soul and you two became friends, he died and- apparently- got resurrected, and didn't mention it to any of us before now."

PastBuffy blinked in shock.

"W… what?" she said, looking at Faith in horror. "I. I was involved… with _SPIKE_!"

"If it helps you, we can assure you that you never really loved him that way," Kennedy put in. "You've mentioned a few times over the past year or so that you thought of him as more than a friend, but you never actually _loved_ him."

PastBuffy took that in, but privately she just shuddered.

Her and… _Spike_?

She _seriously_ needed to have a bit of a talk with her future self when she got the chance….

* * *

"So, care to tell me why you didn't tell me you were alive?" Buffy asked Spike, looking critically at him.

"Why? So you could convince you and yours that my death didn't matter? That good ol' Spike hadn't changed?" Spike asked, slightly harshly. "I'd rather you remembered me as making a last stand, rather then as just… going off for a bit."

Buffy stared at Spike blankly for a few seconds, before she finally spoke.

"You actually thought I'd say that?" she asked him, taking a step or so towards him to look him directly in the eyes. "Spike, I would _never_ insinuate that your sacrifice didn't matter! You of all people should know I would never think that."

Stepping forward, she touch his cheek with one hand, and, leaning in, briefly kissed him on the lips. It wasn't a passionate kiss; just a chaste peck on the lips, that might have been exchanged between close friends in desperate moments.

She pulled back and looked at him. "You saved us, Spike. Without you, we would have all died. That doesn't get belittled just because you're back. Which for the record, I'm glad. I missed you, Spike."

Spike gulped. He glanced at her warily. "Missed you too, Luv."

Buffy started to speak, but he just sighed and indicated the medical room. "Get going; the poof's still in there."

* * *

Buffy blinked in surprise. "W. what?" she asked him.

"Look, just get in there, will you?" Spike said, smiling slightly as he looked at her. "The self-sacrificing thing is more Peaches's gig then mine; don't want to be accused of nicking his stuff." He rolled his eyes and stared up at the ceiling. "Already got enough of that crap from him back during that fight with the bloody Coalition, thank you very much."

Buffy blinked in surprise.

Then, smiling, she leaned forward and hugged Spike, staying that way for a few seconds before letting go and looking at him again.

"You're getting there," she said, smiling at him.

"Oh, balls." Spike muttered, sounding only partly sarcastic. "Just _go_, will you?" Spike said, smiling as he jerked his thumb towards the medical bay. "I'll take these files back to the others; maybe Wes'll be able to get some use out of them…"

* * *

The Sahvrin weren't even sure what they were doing in L. A. anymore.

The negotiations between their people and the Vinjis had gone well, thanks to the efforts of the vampire, despite that incident with the secretary being framed, but they'd decided to just stick around after that, savouring the delights of civilisation, which they'd long ignored in favour of their conflict.

Quick frankly, this opium den was just bliss…

Then someone punched through the door of their private room, threw it off to one  
side, and walked into the room, dusting off his hands as he did so.

Turning to look at him, the few Sahvrin not totally incoherent due to the drugs, blinked in surprise at the man's costume; he was dressed in the black garb and white collar of a preacher, with a long floppy fringe and a fairly handsome face.

The most alert Sahvrin swallowed in fear.

They knew this man well; Caleb, formally the most feared emissary of the First itself, but destroyed by the combined power of Angelus and the Prime Slayer herself in a battle almost a year ago.

Evidently, his death had been exaggerated.

"Time to die," he smirked at them, as he raised one fist and turned towards the nearest Sahvrin.

* * *

"You're kidding me, right?" Buffy said, looking at the man standing opposite her with an incredulous expression on her face. "All this medical technology at your disposal, and all that you can determine is that _something's missing_! Can't you at least tell us what!"

The man looked like he was about retaliate with some kind of biting comment, but seeing the rage on the faces of the four (Or should that be three, given that one of them was there in two different forms) Slayers, he decided to just be honest. After all, two of them (Or one, depending on how you wanted to view it) were in love with one of the victims, a third was in love with the other, and the fourth regarded both of the unconscious people in the next room as close friends.

"Well. it's d-definitely something mental, rather t-than anything p-physical," he explained nervously, as he pulled up a couple of charts from a machine behind him and laid them down on his desk. "A-as these show," he said, indicating a dark area on the charts, that appeared to show a human head as viewed from the top, "something in their minds must h-have somehow been extracted by that…. beam that you m-mentioned."

"And we just figured out what it was!" Fred yelled as she came charging into the room, a large, leather-bound book clasped in her hands.

"What?" Kennedy asked, anxiously looking over at the young scientist. "What did it do?"

"Xander and I found out who the demon was," Fred said, as she laid the book down on a nearby desk and indicated the picture of Duelle on one page before she turned to the text.

"So… what's his beef?" Faith asked, looking at the book curiously.

"Well, firstly, I checked over the effects of the extraction beam on the subject, and you'll pleased to know that there shouldn't be any ill effects; Angel and Willow should be up and about in a couple of hours," Fred said, looking at everyone with a rather pathetic attempt at a smile on her face.

"But what did it do!" PastBuffy yelled at the woman, unable to think clearly any more; what had that… _thing_ done to Angel?

And Willow, obviously, but she was more concerned about the love of her life right now…

"Well, according to the files, Duelle's main power is the ability to extract the basic evil in humanity's nature and turn it into a separate personality," Fred explained, indicating certain parts of the book as she spoke. "However, the dark side has to have been given a separate existence- at least been the one in charge of the body- at some point in the past, otherwise all the ray will do is daze an opponent for a time-"

"Wait a moment," Buffy said, raising one hand to stop Fred before she could go any further. "It gives a person's _dark side _a separate existence if it's _already _been released?"

"Oh God…" PastBuffy said, as she and her future self stared at each other. "Did… did Willow…?"

"Oh yeah; just last year, in fact," Buffy said, as she turned to look at Faith, Kennedy and Fred. "We're in trouble."

* * *

"So, you understand the situation you shall be dealing with?" Cyvus asked Hamilton, as he watched the glow surrounding the man fade as the Partners completed the spell of transference.

"Yes, I'm sure I understand what you are asking of me, Cyvus," Hamilton sighed. "All I need to do is make contact-"

"Wrong from the start," a voice said from off to the side.

"What?" Hamilton said, as he and Cyvus turned in the direction of the voice…

And stared in horror at the two figures standing there.

One of them was a young woman, maybe half a head or so shorter then the man, beside her, dressed in dark trousers and a dark blue jacket, with black hair, slight veins visible all over her face, and- most disturbing of all- pitch-black eyes.

However, the man was the one who really drew their attention, given that, in every obvious manner, he was the complete physical double of Angelus, save for the fact that his eyes lacked the typical gleam that indicated the presence of the soul…

The man grinned.

"Good day, guys," he said, as he put an apparently affectionate arm around the woman. "Name's Angelus, this is Willow, and we shall be your murderers this evening."


	10. Looking in a Mirror

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Angel, or any associated characters; I just own this plot, Heure, and Brindil. I don't own Duana; he's a creation of Jaclyn Blackrose.

Feedback: Naturally

**Freezyboncoolipants:** First rule of writing, in my opinion; do the unexpected

**charisma:** Shall I assume that's a good thing?

**lessthanangelic1:** Glad to hear it

**charli:** Hope I didn't keep you waiting

**paige:** Thanks; I just do what I can

**C'est Magnifique:** The way I see it, Dru was mad; we shouldn't pretend she was otherwise

**wackycavegirl:** I'm trying my best, believe me

**Bera-Moon: **Sorry; all my mind's on is a fascination with the dual natures of men and women, and an addiction to anything where the hero tangles with his evil twin.

**Emily: **I agree; anything with Angelus in it is something I always enjoy, _especially _when he and Angel are active at the same time…

**IWRY-ALWAYS:** I agree with you on both counts; Dark Willow was indeed one of Buffy's best villains. And Angelus? In my opinion, he's the _crème de la crème_ of Buffy and Angel villains; he knew all their weaknesses, and also knew just how to exploit them.

A Buffy from the Past

"Uh…" Angel grunted, blinking his eyes open as he slowly sat up in his bed. "What happened…?"

"ANGEL!" somebody cried out. Instantly, Angel found himself embraced by two strong pairs of arms, squeezing him with such strength that he'd probably have been killed if he was only a human rather than a vampire.

Looking down, he was relieved to see it was only the two Buffys; at least neither of them were harmed, whatever else that… thing that had attacked him and Willow had done…

He froze.

"Is Willow all right?" he asked Buffy, looking at her anxiously; he hated to think of the woman who'd restored his soul being seriously hurt.

"She'll be up soon," Buffy replied, smiling at him. "She was taking a bit longer to recover, so she was transferred to a different area of the medical bay; Faith and Kennedy went with her. She's still not quite as resistant to injury as you are, but she should be up soon."

Then her face fell. "Which is good, because we have a _really _serious problem to deal with."

"What?" Angel said, sitting up slightly in the bed he was lying in, relieved that he was still fully dressed; at least whatever had been done to determine what had happened hadn't involved anyone needing to take his clothes off. "What's…?"

He froze.

It was quiet.

_Too _quiet…

He looked sharply over at Buffy.

"What happened to Angelus?" he said.

Buffy blinked. "What?" she asked, looking at Angel in surprise. "You… you know he's gone?"

Angel nodded. "He's always in the back of my mind, Buffy," he explained, as he sat up, swung his legs over the side of the bed, and got to his feet, only a slight shaking in his posture betraying the fact that he still wasn't in the best of health. "Even if he can't take charge, I always hear his voice in the back of my head, whispering away at me, trying to drive me to the brink of despair…"

He shrugged. "Quite frankly, it's a relief to have a bit of peace."

Then his face hardened. "But I'd prefer to know _why_ I've got it all of a sudden."

"Long story short?" PastBuffy interjected, sounding like she wanted to say her piece as soon as possible. "That beam that hit you and Willow extracted your evil personas; we think Angelus and…"

"Dark Willow," Buffy put in.

"Thanks- 'Dark Willow' are running about somewhere with whoever's behind this whole mess," PastBuffy finished.

If it was possible for Angel's skin to get paler, it would have.

"He's… separate?" he asked PastBuffy, looking at the young woman in horror.

PastBuffy swallowed nervously. "Yeah…" she said, as a brief tear trickled down one cheek.

Angel walked over to her and hugged her, as she began to sob uncontrollably into his shoulder. He couldn't blame her; after all, it may have been over six years for the rest of them, but for her, she'd just survived six months of having to battle Angelus while dealing with the guilt of having released him in the first place.

Coupled with the fact that, as far as s he was concerned, he was still, technically, in _Hell_…

Well, he couldn't blame her for being a bit shaken.

* * *

After her past self had calmed down a bit, Angel looked over at Buffy.

"How long until Willow's up?" he asked.

"Shouldn't be too long; they estimated half an hour at best," Buffy replied, trying not to focus on how weird it was to see Angel hugging _her_…

"Right," Angel said, pulling away from her younger self. "I'll issue an alert to keep an eye out for Angelus; if we can find him, we'll probably find whoever it is he's working with; you two should all check over our armoury for anything that could come in useful."

"'We'?" Buffy asked, looking curiously at Angel. "Why not you; you're the one who knows Angelus the best?"

"Until we know more about this split, consider me a potential leak about our combat situation," Angel said, looking back at Buffy. "We can't be sure that Angelus still isn't capable of somehow reading my thoughts and learning what strategies we're developing to fight him; got that?"

"O- _sniff_- okay," PastBuffy said, blinking back a few tears and heading out of the room, followed by her future self.

Checking his coat, Angel walked out of his room and headed for his office.

* * *

"Harmony?" Angel said, stopping in front of his desk to look at the blonde vampire.

"Yeah boss?" she asked, looking curiously up at him.

"We have a Code Red situation," Angel explained. "Cancel all of my appointments, cancel any appointments that the others have, issue an order to keep an eye out for anything that matches my activities as Angelus, and then cancel any arrangements _you've_ made and report to the training room."

Harmony blinked. "Wh… what?" she asked, confused. "The training room? Why?"

"Because right now we need every available superhuman fighter to handle this crisis, and, as much as I _wish _there was an alternative, that currently includes you," Angel explained. "Send them a memo that you're going, and get down there as soon as possible; we don't have time to hang around."

"Right-oh, boss!" Harmony said, turning around and starting to tap away at her computer.

Angel turned around, walked into his office, shut the door…

And then noticed that somebody was sitting in his chair.

He blinked in surprise, but then recovered; this wasn't the first time this had happened in the past few weeks.

"Spike?" he said, raising a critical eyebrow as he stared at the chair. "No offence intended, but we don't exactly have the time for you to be lounging around in my office; could you get up and try to help us out now?"

The chair spun around, allowing the person sitting in it to face Angel…

And Angel froze.

_NO…!_ he tried to say, but no sound could pass his lips.

It was Angelus.

* * *

"Soul-Boy!" Angelus smiled, standing up to look at him with a wide grin on his face. "Great to see you at last."

His grin became wider. "And I mean it; I _never _thought we'd have this chance!"

Angel growled as he stared at his demon.

"How did you get in here?" he asked, barely able to contain his anger as he walked forward to stand in front of the desk.

Angelus shrugged. "Simple enough; I walked in the door," he said casually. "These guys are good, but you _really _need to keep them informed of anything that comes up; it's kinda hard for me to be kept out when the staff don't even know I'm _active_ in the first place!"

Angel sighed; he'd totally forgotten that nothing had been mentioned about alerting the security teams.

Then again, he supposed he should have expected it; after all, Buffy and the others would probably have tried to sneak him into Wolfram & Hart away from the main entrance to minimise the number of people who knew about his condition; why would they want to alert an evil law firm to the fact that the world's potentially most powerful witch and one of its greatest champions were both unconscious and on the premises?

He shook his head off that train of thought and turned back to Angelus.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" he asked his 'twin'. "Decided you didn't like the new 'boss'?"

Angelus's jovial expression faded, and he glared at Angel.

"He's not my boss," the Scourge of Europe growled at his better side. "I'm only playing toady to him while his purposes suit me, and right now, since they include the chance to get at you _and _your precious Slayer, I'm all for that."

He suddenly smiled as a thought occurred to him. "Oh wait; it's Slayer_s_, isn't it?" he grinned. "You know, you really must be grateful about that; at least you won't need to sh-"

Before Angelus could even start on the second syllable of that word, Angel had grabbed him by the throat, lifted him off the floor, leapt over the desk, and rammed his other self against the wall.

Leaning in to look his twin directly in the eyes, Angel growled at his other self.

"You even _touch _them- _either _of them- while I'm around, and you will find yourself back in Hell before you can even blink," he said harshly.

Angelus just grinned as he looked back at his other self. "Well, then I'll have to remedy that, won't I?" he said.

He reached up, grabbed Angel's arm, twisted it off his throat so sharply that Angel nearly felt like it had been broken, and punched Angel in the chest with such force that Angel flew through the air, crashing into the wall opposite his desk before he fell back onto the ground, coughing up a few flecks of blood as he lay on the floor.

Dazed, Angel shakily got to his feet, and looked up at Angelus in confusion.

"How…" he gasped, weakly.

"'… the hell can I do that'?" Angelus asked casually. "I had a bit of a run-in with your would-be liaison to the Senior Partners." He grinned widely. "You know, it's a crying shame you never tried having a quick sip of Eve's blood; the benefits are in-_cred_-ible!"

Growling, Angel stood back up, facing his 'twin' in the eyes once again.

"That won't last forever, you know," he said grimly. "And you know as well as I do, the second you're back to normal, you're dead."

"Really?" Angelus smiled casually. "No offence, but last time I checked, I _was _the one who managed to stop the Beast?"

"You had a weapon I didn't have access to at the time," Angel pointed out. "That doesn't make you better; it just makes you lucky."

Raising one hand, Angelus held out his hand and beckoned Angel towards him.

"Shall we find out whether that's accurate?" he asked.

* * *

The two of them instinctively shifted into game face as Angel charged towards Angelus, hurling himself at his demon with such force that they crashed right through the tinted grey 'glass' that was all that separated Angel's office from the rest of the building, crashing right into Harmony's now-vacant desk; evidently, she'd either followed Angel's orders and gone to the training room already, or she'd heard the start of the fight and run off to get help.

However, as Angelus grabbed Angel's jacket and threw him off, Angel wasn't going to pin his hopes on the idea that it was the second one.

Twisting sharply as he flew through the air, Angel landed on his feet as he hit the ground, instantly spinning around to face Angelus as he got to his feet. Before his double could react, Angel had charged forward again and punched him in the face, following it up with a rapid knee to the groin and a second punch to the chest….

At least, it was _aimed _at his chest; Angelus grabbed the oncoming fist before it could strike home.

He smiled at Angel casually.

"Nice shot, little brother," he said, almost sounding like he was praising Angel for completing a difficult maths problem.

Then his face hardened. "But not good enough."

He launched a second punch at Angel's head, which Angel only just caught in his own hand.

He growled at Angelus.

"Don't call me 'brother'," he said simply.

Then the two of them sharply twisted their arms to the right, in a desperate attempt to throw off the other. The resulting sharp twist briefly dislocated both their shoulders, although both arms were snapped back into place a few moments afterwards as the two vampires faced each other.

Angelus made the first move, lashing out at Angel's neck with a rapid karate chop. Retaliating with an identical move, Angel knocked Angelus's arm back, following it up with a punch aimed towards Angelus's face. The other vampire managed to catch his opponent by the wrist an inch or so away from his face, but Angel instantly spread out his fingers, striking Angelus in the throat and making him lose focus long enough for Angel to escape.

In desperation, Angel lashed out with a roundhouse kick that he'd found useful in several prior combat situations, mainly because of the sheer force he often put into the blow being enough to daze many of his normal opponents. However, in this case, it was just a waste of effort; Angelus grabbed, the leg in mid-kick and hurled Angel over his head, sending his other self crashing through the remains of the inner window to his office.

Angel briefly winced as a few shards of glass stuck into his back, but then he clenched his teeth and blocked the pain out.

It was official; he was _really_ mad now.

* * *

Leaping back onto his feet, he charged towards Angelus, launching a series of punches at his chest and face, one after the other.

"Do you have," a punch to the gut, "any idea," an elbow in the face, "what it was like," grabbed his foe's arm and threw him into a wall, "having _you_," twist the arm, smiling as a loud snap was heard, "nattering on," punch, "in the back of my head," punch, "every," punch, "single," sharp uppercut, "DAY!"

Angelus flew back after that final blow, dazed by the sheer force behind it, and collapsed down on the ground in front of Angel.

Looking around, Angel crouched down and picked up a large shard of glass from the broken window; it wasn't perfect, but it was sharp enough to make a decent stake if he had no alternatives.

He looked back at Angelus, lying dazed on the ground, and a grin spread across his face.

He raised the 'stake', started to bring his arm down towards his alter ego…

And it was grabbed by Angelus.

Using the arm as a support, Angelus leapt back onto his feet, yanked the shard of glass out of Angel's hand, and then, as Angel was briefly distracted by the sharp pain in his hand, Angelus started to launch his own blows.

"It was probably," a slash to the face with the shard, "about as annoying," a knee driven into Angel's jaw, "as having to watch you," a rapid punch to the side of the face, " be Mr Goody-Two-Shoes," an upper cut that forced Angel to stand back up again, dazed from the other blows, "all," punch, "the," punch, "_fucking_," another uppercut, "TIME!"

With that strike, Angel found himself sprawled on the ground, in almost the same position as Angelus had been, the only difference being that his face was bleeding.

And, of course, the fact that he wasn't as likely to get back up as fast as his other self.

* * *

Angelus smiled as he looked down at the sight before him. He couldn't believe it; after all this time, he was _finally_ going to get to kill the Soul! Somebody down there _really _liked him!

He twirled the glass shard in his hand, and raised it above his head.

"Goodbye, little brother," he said casually…

As he began to bring the stake down towards Angel's heart.


	11. Double or Nothing

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Angel, or any associated characters; I just own this plot, Heure, and Brindil. I don't own Duana; he's a creation of Jaclyn Blackrose.

Feedback: Naturally

**Emily:** Here you are

**CF:** Yeah, that'd be good, but don't forget, Angelus _is _still going through a serious power boost because of Hamilton's blood…

**charli:** Here's where you'll find your answer

**wackycavegirl:** Sorry, but I have a _lot _more cliffhangers planned out…

**Scourge of Europe:** I have to agree with you on that one.

**Melanie:** That's what I was trying for

**WhiteWolf3: **True; I'm just sorry I couldn't come up with a less predictable means of saving Angel

**Lessthanangelic1: **Sorry it couldn't be any sooner

**pinkyblue-ice:** That's good, I assume?

**Nonsda05: **I have no intention of stopping soon, I assure you

**Graga Serrs: **Believe me, this isn't the worse situation I'm going to stick Angel in, I assure you.

A Buffy from the Past

"NO!" someone called out from the side.

Instantly, Angelus found himself struck in the sides simultaneously from two points, knocking him off to the side and instinctively forcing him to close his fist on the glass shard that he would have used to stake his souled counterpart.

He screamed in agony as the glass cut into his hand, slicing through tendons that wouldn't be instantly healed even with vampiric healing abilities, only to have the scream cut off by a fierce uppercut that forced his jaw up back up with such force that he could have sworn he felt a tooth or two crack, before he hit the ground and spun back onto his feet…

His eyes fell on his opponents, and, despite the sharp pain in his mouth, he smiled.

It was the Buffies.

"_There _you two are!" he said, grinning as he looked around at the three figures in front of him; Angel was already staggering to his feet, although he was having to lean on Buffy's shoulder for support. "I was waiting for you guys to show up!"

"You…" PastBuffy whispered, looking at him in horror. "You're… you're…"

"Back?" Angelus smiled, looking over at her. "Yeah, I am; great, isn't it?"

He smiled over at PastBuffy. "You know, it's good to see you again, Buff; I always meant to drop in on you when I got out last year, but stuff kept coming up." He smiled. "You know how it is; too busy focusing on taking out the soul's new friends to focus on the ex-love of his life."

Sighing, he glanced over at Angel. "You know, I still say you have really bad taste in hallucinations."

"What?" PastBuffy said, looking over at Angel in confusion. "What's he talking about? What does he mean, you have bad taste in-"

Angel held up a hand to stop her talking, then, although still weak from the injuries he'd sustained, he removed his arm from Buffy's shoulders and stared at Angelus, his fixed expression as emotionless as his twin's.

"That's not going to work, Angelus," he said. "It was over a year ago, and a lot's changed since then."

"Really?" Angelus asked, smirking casually. "And yet, if memory serves, you haven't told them the full story?"

"It wasn't relevant," Angel growled at Angelus. "It wasn't real, I don't know why it was what I saw, and we both know that the only reason it got that far was that I thought nothing would happen."

"Really?" Angelus smiled, looking casually over at his other self. "You kissed her, held her, undressed her, went and started to _screw _her _senseless_, and you thought nothing was going to happen? Pull the other one, it's got bells on!"

"Shut up," Angel said, as he stared at his other self.

"Or what; you'll kill me?" Angelus said, smirking. "I think we've determined that, for all your skills, I'm _still _your superior, little brother!"

Angel didn't even bother to reply.

Instead, he charged forward, lashed out a powerful punch at Angelus, following it up with a roundhouse kick that sent his other self flying into the nearby wall.

Angel stared dispassionately at Angelus.

"Don't call me brother," he said simply.

He glanced back at the Buffies. "You two go and get help; I'll handle him."

"No way," Buffy said, walking over to stand beside her former lover, adopting a combat stance as she spoke. "He's _our _problem, Angel; he's going down, and that's all there is to it."

"R-right," PastBuffy said, as she took up position on Angel's other side.

Angelus chuckled slightly at the sight, but then he shrugged casually and shifted back into a combat stance.

"Let's go," he said.

* * *

Charging forward, Angelus launched the first attack, lashing out at Buffy and Angel with two simultaneous punches, following it up with a roundhouse kick aimed at PastBuffy's head…

She grabbed the leg and sharply twisted it.

Yelling in pain, Angelus was sent flying through the air, striking the nearby wall with enough force to crack it. Dazed, he tried to stagger to his feet, only to be met by a rapid kick to the head from PastBuffy that sent him rolling a foot or so down the corridor.

Staggering back to his feet, Angelus looked up…

Only to find both Buffies staring at him.

Buffy spoke first, indicating the slight bruise on her left cheek from where Angelus had hit her.

"That hurt," she said simply.

Then the two of them punched him on both cheeks at once, forcing his head back with such force that he could have sworn he heard a crack from somewhere in his neck. Staggering back, Angelus found himself being pummelled in the stomach by the two Slayers, each one striking him with such precision and timing that it was almost as though they were one being rather than two…

Of course, that was almost an accurate description of the situation, but Angelus wasn't in the mood for technicalities.

Desperately, he reached up, grabbed the two Buffies' oncoming fists, and yanked them off to the side, throwing the two Slayers off to the side. However, before Angelus could do anything to take advantage of the attack, the darkly-clad form of his ensouled counterpart crashed into his chest, throwing him to the ground.

* * *

Duana sighed as he studied the glowing ball in the air in front of him. He supposed he should have expected it; after all, the hatred between those two individuals was so incredible it made most conflicts pale in comparision. Each were more alike than even they were prepared to admit…

And they hated that fact almost as much as they hated what their other self stood for.

Of course, Duana was planning on having them fight soon enough anyway; after all, Angel was too dangerous to be allowed to live.

But not _now_; it was too soon…

Sighing, Duana reached out, waved his hand, and watched as the black-eyed, black-haired face of Dark Willow appeared in front of him.

"Angelus has shown his hand a bit too early for my liking," he said to her. "Could you possibly head along to Wolfram & Hart and make sure he gets out of there alive?"

Dark Willow smiled at him, nodded, and then vanished from the 'screen'. Leaning back in his chair, Duana relaxed; he knew he could count on her to save Angelus.

He just hoped he could count on Angelus not to let anything slip…

* * *

Pinning his 'twin'down between his legs, Angel began to lash out desperately at his foe, launching punch after punch at the head in front of him. There was no finesse, no skill, no subtle objective behind the blows…

Angel was just pissed.

He had over a century's worth of pent-up aggression to vent on his foe, and he wasn't wasting any time to release it.

After launching a few final punches, he stopped.

Stepping back off his twin, he grabbed Angelus by the lapels of his coat, and hauled him up off his feet, about a head above Angel.

The two men stared at each other for a few seconds, and then Angel spoke.

"I've been waiting for this day for over a hundred years," he said simply.

Then he threw Angelus back through the remains of the glass wall that had separated the rest of the building from his office. The few shards of glass that were left tore into Angelus, and he yelled in agony as he hit the ground.

* * *

The two Buffies walked up behind Angel, staring at the sight in front of them.

PastBuffy looked up at Angel. "Is… is this it?" she asked him.

Angel nodded. "Yeah, it is," he said to her. He looked down. "By the way, have you got a stake on you?"

Nodding, PastBuffy reached into her pocket and pulled the stake out of her pocket, passing it to the vampire beside her.

"Thanks," Angel said in reply. Then he walked towards his fallen foe, poising the stake over his heart, much as Angelus had held the piece of glass over his own heart only a few minutes earlier.

He stared down at Angelus.

"Goodbye," he said simply, as he raised the stake.

Wincing, Angelus looked back up at his twin, glancing over at the two Buffies behind him, and smiled.

"You know, the second you do that,everyone in this room istechnically guilty of committing bigamy," he said casually.

Angel froze.

_He didn't do that… he _couldn't _have…_

Before Angel could even realise what had happened, Angelus had kicked out, knocking Angel back, and then, after a pause of about a second or two for reasons Angel couldn't guess, leapt out of the window…

Into the blazing sunlight.

Instinctively, Angel dived back, dodging the brilliant light that streamed in from the window, watching in amazement as Angelus began to fall towards the ground, his coat starting to smoulder as he fell towards the ground…

Then, suddenly, Angelus was right in front of them, hovering in mid-air in a transparent dark ball of some kind, with an attractive, dark-haired woman behind him.

Angel blinked as he stared at the woman.

"_Willow_!" he said, along with PastBuffy.

The woman smiled at Angel. "Hello, Soulie," she said briefly.

Then she turned around and flew away, the dark ball that held Angelus flying behind her.

The two Buffies stared after the vanishing figures for a moment, and then turned back to Angel.

Angel swallowed; this couldn't be good.

Both of them spoke at once.

"WHAT THE HELL DID HE MEAN BY THE BIGAMY COMMENT!"

All things considered, it was probably a good thing that Xander, Dawn, Gunn, Faith and Spike chose to relieve the tension at that moment by charging into the room brandishing large weapons.


	12. The Truth Comes Out

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Angel, or any associated characters; I just own this plot, Heure, and Brindil. I don't own Duana; he's a creation of Jaclyn Blackrose.

Feedback: Naturally

**buffstuff500:** Thanks; glad to hear it's popular

**IWRY-ALWAYS: **Yeah, I'm sorry about the delay, but stuff keeps on coming up.

**A2zmom:** The explanation is coming up; I promise you that.

**WhiteWolf 3:** Generally, I've always figured that you aren't restricted to a wooden stake when killing vampires; so long as it's sharp and hits the heart, the fine print about _what _it was doesn't really matter

**MysticWolf1:** Yeah, I get your point, and I am _trying _to respect Angel's feelings for Cordelia; it was just that, right then, Angel was mostly trying to get Angelus to shut up more than anything else. I acknowledge that Buffy and Angel had other relationships, but I just can't really get into them; if nothing else, I can _never _see the Buffy/Spike 'relationship' as anything other than Buffy needing stress relief.

**charmedslayers:** Sorry about the delay.

**pinkyblue-ice:** _That _is putting it mildly…

**minorcadence:** Glad you like it so far, but I'm warning you, it's not going to stay cheery for long…

**Serrafina: **I'll _definitely _be remembering that line for the future… (Just one point; PastBuffy hasn't met Faith yet in her time, so the reference to her sadly doesn't work)

**C'est Magnifique: **Well, he's out of it, but the question is, is the alternative worse?

**Nonsda05:** Oh, I intend to do what I can on that front, believe me…

**Wackycavegirl:** Well, quite frankly, that guy needs taken down a peg or two, if you ask me.

**Noelle:** I'm doing what I can; it's just that stuff keeps coming up

A Buffy from the Past

After a few short seconds staring blankly around at the trashed office, Spike spoke.

"What the hell happened here?" he asked, looking around at the shattered office.

"Angelus," Buffy said, looking over at the others. "Somehow he got in here, tackled Angel, and then bailed out that way," she jerked a thumb at the window before continuing, "with some assistance from Dark Willow."

"_What_!" Xander and Dawn yelled simultaneously, looking over at the Buffies and Angel.

"Dark Willow's _back_!" Dawn cried, looking around the room as though waiting for someone to crack a joke of some kind. "You're… you're kidding, right? _Right_!"

"Trust me, I wish we were; I could use a good laugh right now," Buffy said, looking over at her sister before turning back to Angel. "_Especially _if what Angelus just said was true…"

"What?" Gunn asked, looking over at the two Slayers, who, the others noticed, were looking at Angel with a particularly harsh expression on their faces. "What did he say?"

"Um, look…" Angel said, looking up at Gunn as he spoke. "Could I borrow your office for a few minutes? I'd take mine, but, as you can see, privacy is hard to come by here, and I'd rather nobody else overheard me before I've gotten everything straightened out," he said, indicating the broken glass wall.

"Oh, sure, if you want," Gunn said, more than slightly surprised by the sudden change of direction.

"Wait a minute; you're just gonna _leave _us here without any info!" Spike asked his sire, looking angrily over at him. "Didn't you learn _anything _new from the poof?"

Angel looked curiously at Spike. "I thought _I _was the one you thought of as 'the poof'," he said, in a tone that was both sarcastic and inquisitive.

Spike shook his head. "No, _Angelus _is the poof," he said, by way of explanation. "I only call you that because it gets on _his _nerves as well. You…"

He shrugged. "You're not him. He's not even in your head anymore; where's the point in insulting you to get at him?"

Angel smiled over at his grandchilde. "Why, Spike," he said, an ever-widening grin on his face, "I think that may just be the nicest thing you've ever said to me."

Spike shook his head in an almost wistful manner. "Yeah, well, don't get used to it, Gel-head," he said casually, before jerking his thumb towards the door. "Now get going; whatever it is you've got to do, just do it, OK?"

* * *

"Right-o," Buffy said, grabbing Angel's left arm, her past self grabbing his right as they headed in the direction of Gunn's office. As he was hauled towards the door, Angel supposed he should count his blessings; after all, at least they weren't asking him what Angelus and he had been referring to when they were discussing his hallucinations.

Somehow, he doubted _either _Buffy would be happy to learn he'd lost his soul after thinking he'd had sex with _Cordelia_…

Then he was standing in his office, facing the two Buffies, and he could only swallow nervously.

If he got out of this intact, he'd _definitely _start to seriously consider taking up religion again.

"So, care to explain what he meant by the bigamy comment?" PastBuffy asked, looking inquiringly at her… technically _ex_, even if, as far as she was concerned, they hadn't officially broken up yet.

Angel swallowed as he looked between the two women. Right now, he only had two options; run for his life, or tell the truth and hope for the best. Given that he could never get near the door before they hit him, he decided to take his chances with the second option.

_At least they aren't asking who Angelus was referring to with the hallucination comment_… Angel thought to himself. Somehow, he doubted either girl would be pleased to learn he'd slept with Cordelia, even if it had only been a hallucination.

Besides, for all he'd said to Angelus back in that corridor, they'd both known the truth; Angel had fallen for Cordelia during his time in L.A. He'd fallen for her almost as hard as he'd fallen for Buffy, back in those days when there was still something like innocence between them.

Back before the curse had come between them…

But it still hadn't been the same as Buffy. In fact, he always thought that the main reason he'd even slept with Cordelia in his fantasy was because- on some level- their relationship was more based on friendship than the fierce passion that he'd felt around Buffy. Cordelia had been the person who helped him become better with people, and Buffy…

She'd given him the desire to actually _try_.

Shaking those thoughts off, he looked back up at the two Buffies; he might as well get this over with.

"OK," he said, looking at the two of them nervously; after all, how do you react to news of the kind he was about to give them? "Look, this is going to be a bit of a shock, so can I just ask that you don't try to kill me once you find out? I get the feeling I'll be needed in this situation soon."

"We'll see," PastBuffy said simply. "Now, _what_ did Angelus mean?"

"Well… um… you remember the ring I gave you on your seventeenth birthday?" Angel asked them. "You know, at the docks? When I thought I was going to leave?"

"Yes…" the two Buffies said, looking at him curiously.

"Well, what I didn't tell you was that… well, those rings, back when I was alive?" Angel said, hoping and praying that they wouldn't stake him after he finished his sentence. "They were used in the past as…"

He swallowed anxiously. "They were used as wedding bands."

* * *

Buffy froze.

_No way… he didn't just do that… he did _not _just say what I think he said…_

Buffy tried to open her mouth to speak, but her past self beat her to it.

"You mean… we're married?" she asked Angel, staring at the ring that she was still wearing on her finger. "We got married that night?"

"Well… technically, yeah," Angel said, nodding slightly, as though he didn't want to hit them with too much too fast. "I mean, we exchanged a… sort of… vow, and we definitely, um… _consummated _it later on…"

Buffy snapped.

"HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO US!" she yelled at him, tears already brimming over in her eyes. "YOU _MARRIED _US AND DIDN'T EVEN_ TELL _US? YOU _LEFT _ME, FOR GOD'S SAKE! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO YOUR _WIFE_!"

* * *

Angel swallowed. He'd known that _one _of them would react like that…

He could only be grateful that she hadn't hit him yet.

"Well, in all fairness, he couldn't exactly tell us when the event _happened_, could he?" PastBuffy put in, looking over at her future self. Angel wasn't sure how to feel about her expression; on the one hand, she wasn't angry, but her expression looked like she was almost ready to collapse from shock or burst into tears. "I mean, he didn't… you know, he wasn't… wasn't…"

"Wasn't there, I know," Buffy said, looking back at Angel as her younger self tried to contain her sniffs and tears. "What I want to know is, why didn't _Angelus _mention it? Wouldn't that have been a pretty good way of getting us off-balance in a fight?"

"That was the reason he _didn't _mention it, actually," Angel said, wishing he could see into the future; at least he'd have a better idea as to what was going to happen to him. "He figured that he'd only use it if he was in a situation where he couldn't see any other way to stop you killing him; he was actually going to say it before I… you know… got my soul back."

"Ah," Buffy said, as her past self sat down to try and get over her sobs. She decided to leave the young girl along; after all, for her, the angst of Angelus and these events in question were still too close to the surface for her to be able to calmly discuss them.

Hell, Buffy had lived six years since those events and she _still _didn't like to think about them…

Then she glared at Angel as another memory occurred to her.

"And you couldn't have mentioned this when you got back?" she asked him scathingly. "Would it have killed you to let me know that I had a _husband_?"

"Buffy…" Angel said, swallowing as he looked at her. "I _couldn't_. It was hard enough when you thought we were just dating; how could I tell you that we were already married? In the end, well…" He sighed. "It was easier just to leave, especially after-"

He stopped.

_No_, he told himself firmly. He couldn't do that to them… not even almost three years after her departure, he couldn't just do something like that to their memory of their mother…

"After what?" Buffy asked, looking at him angrily. "After the Mayor's little speech to us? Angel, he was the freakin' _bad guy_, remember! Why the hell were you taking _his _advice!"

"I wasn't," Angel said, already feeling like he wanted to stab himself for what he was about to say. But… well, after five hundred years in Hell, anything else was a piece of cake.

He had to say this.

"It was your mother…" he said, his voice lowering to such an extent that he was hoping they couldn't hear it.

But they did.

If Buffy hadn't snapped earlier, she definitely did at this point.

"_WHAT!_" she yelled, looking at Angel in horror. "She told you to _LEAVE _me! And you _LISTENED_ to her? HELLO! SENSE TO ANGEL? She knew next o NOTHING about my life as the Slayer, and you took HER advice about what was good for me?"

"Wait a minute…" PastBuffy said, looking up at Angel, her future self's torrent of anger apparently getting through her moment of grief. "You left because my _mom_ wanted you to?"

"She… she thought it would be for the best," Angel said, trying to avoid looking either of them in the eyes as he stared a point approximately between them. "She thought that… well, if I wasn't there… you'd have a chance at a normal life instead of a life that was just devoted to Slaying."

Buffy snapped.

"And you _LISTENED _to her!" Buffy yelled at him, looking like she was ready to hurl _him _through a window like Angelus had been thrown earlier. "Angel, LOOK at what happened to us without each other! I nearly lost my friends after a _fucking YEAR _without you, _you _went on that trip to the Dark Side when Darla was resurrected, and I ending up _screwing SPIKE_! Did you never even wonder _WHY _I was doing **_HIM_**! HE WAS THE ONLY VAMPIRE WHO WOULDN'T TEAR MY THROAT OUT **_OR _**LOSE HIS SOUL!"

"What?" Angel whispered, as though unsure how to react. Looking over at PastBuffy, he noticed she seemed just as confused as he was; then again, given six years of difference, he supposed he should have expected that she wouldn't quite understand her future self.

"What, you didn't work it _out_?" Buffy yelled at him. "You had a _detective agency _and you couldn't figure out why I was dating _SPIKE_! I HAD MY EYES SHUT EVERY TIME I HIT MY PEAK, ANGEL! I WANTED HIM TO BE _YOU_, DAMNIT! CAN'T YOU SEE THAT I STILL _LOVE YOU_!"

She clapped her hands over her mouth after that last statement.


	13. The Reason is Power

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Angel, or any associated characters; I just own this plot, Heure, and Brindil. I don't own Duana; he's a creation of Jaclyn Blackrose.

Feedback: Naturally

**minocadence: **Glad to hear it's proving popular.

**CF:** A valid point, but I think Angel would be more concerned about defending his actions as a whole than using that little point to try and help him.

**buffstuff500:** I don't, believe me, but I can't update any faster than this…

**SlayerWitchGilmoreGirls:** Thanks; here's the next chapter

**mz.sarJe:** Sorry about the delay, but I can't write any faster

**pinkyblue-ice:** Ask and ye shall receive, my dear ice.

**a2zmom:** I know it's not legal _now_, but Angel was basing his actions on the way things were when he was alive; for all that's happened, the guy's still a bit set in his ways, the way I see it. (Heck, in everything I've read, he _still _can't quite work his mobile properly!)

**IWRY-ALWAYS: **Trust me, there's still one or two more that need to come out…

**Melanie:** Glad to hear it; I hope I don't disappoint you in the future

**Julyhearts: **Glad to hear that statement went down well; I was worried about it

**Serrafina: **Ask and ye shall receive, my dear Serra

**Mysticalwolf:** It seemed like a good idea at the time, and technically, given the culture Angel was raised in, it makes sense for _him_, which is the main factor here; as far as _he's_ concerned, Buffy _is _his wife, even if they don't have any of the official documentation needed in the modern day, and he _still_ left her

**Mp6nov:** Yeah, I know about that, and I'll see about including it later on

**Bera-Moon:** Good Willow's still unconscious from Duelle's attack, to answer that question.

**JadedTruth:** Thanks, and I'm glad to hear the marriage idea went down well; it seemed good at the time, but I _was _worried about it.

A Buffy from the Past

Angel could only blink in surprise.

She still _loved _him?

He'd always hoped she'd still feel something for him after all this time- even after five years and at least four possible love interests, he still couldn't get over _her_- but to actually hear her say it…

He couldn't think of anything else to say. He just stood there, staring at the young, beautiful blonde woman, who, even after five years, was still the great love of his life, and she stared back at him, both of them uncertain what to say now.

Then there was a slight cough from the side, and they turned around to look at Dawn, who'd just walked into the door.

* * *

"Um, guys?" she said, looking from Angel to the two different versions of her sister, looking more than slightly nervous about what she had to say. "I acknowledge that whatever you two were sating to each other was probably _really _important, but right now I think we've got more… um… _immediate _problems to deal with?"

As the three of them turned to look at her, Dawn swallowed and continued to speak. "I mean, well, don't get me wrong, I'm all in favour of you two- or three, maybe- working things out- if nothing else, you're better than any of the alternatives," she added, looking over at Angel critically before turning back to look at her sister(s) once again, "but we've got to figure out what the Angel and Willow look-alike are doing running about like that before we can start on issues like that, right?"

The two Buffies looked at Angel, with a gleam in their eyes that Angel knew meant that he hadn't heard the last of all this. Then they turned and looked at Dawn, Buffy speaking for them all.

"Let's go," she said.

* * *

"So, how'd things go in there?" Spike asked, as the two Slayers, Dawn and Angel walked into the meeting room. Wesley, Spike, Giles, Fred, Faith, and Xander were already in the room, the two ex-Watchers, Fred and Xander pouring over a mass of books that had been gathered from the Wolfram & Hart library while Spike and Faith were checking over weapons that were mostly kept in chests around the offices.

Buffy shrugged. "We got stuff out of the way," she said, before looking over at the research party. "Any ideas yet about who's behind this?"

"Well, we've found a few likely candidates for an operation on this scale, but nobody who'd actually _need _such unpredictable personalities as Angelus or Dark Willow," Giles explained, looking up from the book he was consulting at the present. "Either they generally work alone, or they could never manage to prevent those two- along with anyone else he might have working with him- from turning on him as things go on."

"We thought for a while it might be Duelle or Heure in charge of things," Fred added, looking up at her friends, "but it didn't work; neither of them really do anything for themselves; their services have always been _hired_ whenever they've been behind something."

* * *

"Well, at least _that's_ something…" PastBuffy sighed, slumping down in a nearby chair while her future self joined Fred and Giles in looking over the books, Angel helping Spike and Faith pick out weapons. "At least it explains why they haven't bothered us before."

Then a thought occurred to her, and she looked curiously as her friends again. "Any further along on getting me home?"

"Well, um… no," Giles sighed, looking back at PastBuffy with a slightly sad expression on his face. "You see, well, with a crisis of this apparent scale brewing…"

"You've got more immediate concerns than figuring out how to get me home, huh?" PastBuffy asked, smiling casually at him. "Hey, it's cool; I understand," she said, noting Giles's slightly sheepish expression. "After all, right now, we gotta save the present, and, quite frankly, we need all hands on deck for-"

A door opened and Gunn came running in, a folder in his hands, his eyes wide in surprise as he stared around the table, finally stopping as his eyes fell on Angel.

"Angel!" he said, horror and shock evident in his voice.

"Gunn?" Angel asked, looking up at his friend. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, not much, except that, suddenly, some of our most _dangerous _clients have all been killed by unknown forces and there's not even a reason as _why_ it happened!" Gunn said, as he tossed Angel the folder, the vampire catching it single-handedly and opening it.

* * *

"What?" Faith said, looking at Angel's concerned expression in confusion. "I thought you said all your major clients for this place were evil?"

"Your clients are _EVIL_!" PastBuffy asked, looking up at Angel in shock.

"You know, it's not like it sounds," Angel said, looking briefly up at her as he continued to scan the file. "None of my team _want _evil clients, we just _have _to keep them if I'm going to actually be able to use this place for anything practical. We shut it down, they'll just take the evil somewhere else; at least _this _way we have more control over what the firm's resources are doing."

His eyes fell on some of the pictures in the file, and, grabbing them, he pulled them out and held them up to his face.

"Oh my God…" he whispered under his breath.

"What?" Dawn asked, looking at the vampire curiously. "What's wrong?"

"This picture," Angel said, turning around and showing it to the others; it showed a collection of apparently human figures in all the essential details of physical appearance, baring the fact that their skin was grey and their eyes were sunken back in their head by a distance that shouldn't be possible for humans. All of the figures had horribly mauled throats, and blood lay spread around the room like a vast banquet which had been raided by ferocious wolves. "I know who could cause that kind of carnage."

He looked up at Spike. "And so do you."

Spike looked blankly back at his grandsire for a few moments, and then realisation dawned.

"Oh, _bollocks_…" he muttered. "_Her_?"

Angel sighed. "I guess we should have expected it, after Angelus came back," he said, sitting back down in his seat as he stared at the photo. "After all, we both know how proud he was of her; he'd have loved the opportunity to work with her again."

"Sorry; who are we talking about?" Kennedy asked, looking between the two vampires in confusion.

"Drusilla," Angel said, looking back at Kennedy as he spoke. "You've heard of her, right?"

Kennedy nodded slowly; evidently, Willow had gone into a certain amount of _detail _about the homicidal brunette.

* * *

"Wait a minute…" Buffy said, noticing something in the corner of another photograph in the file; the main part of the picture was hidden beneath a bunch of papers.

She pulled the picture out of the pile…

And froze.

"_Adam?_!" she yelled in horror.

"WHAT!" Xander and Giles cried out as they spun around to look in the direction of their Slayer.

"The Henshaw wannabe?" Xander asked, holding up one hand for confirmation. "You're sure?"

"Um… 'Henshaw'?" Faith asked, looking at Xander in confusion. "Who's Henshaw?"

"Hank Henshaw, the Cyborg from DC Comics," Gunn said, looking over at Xander inquiringly. "That right?"

Xander nodded. "Yeah, that's it," he said, smiling slightly at Gunn. "You know your stuff."

Gunn shrugged. "I read a lot of comics when I was younger," he said dismissively. The he stared at Giles curiously. "Who was Adam?"

"A 'Frankenstein's monster', if you will, composed of human, demon, and mechanical parts," Giles explained.

Then he looked at Buffy in confusion. "Are you sure it's him?"

"Oh yeah," Buffy said, turning the photograph so that everyone could see it; even in black-and-white, Giles and Xander instantly recognized the thing that had once nearly torn their group apart.

"Kinda unmistakable, isn't he?" Buffy said, as she laid it on the table.

"But… but how?" Xander said, staring at the photograph in horror. "I mean, _you're _one thing," he said, indicating PastBuffy, "but… but _this_? How…?"

* * *

"We've got bigger worries than that," Angel interrupted; he'd kept on scanning the file as the others talked.

"What?" Fred asked, looking at Angel in confusion. "How could things be any _worse_?"

"Easily," Angel said, looking up at Fred. "The people who've been murdered?"

He looked up at Gunn. "They've _all _got those black circular tattoos on their chests, right?" he asked.

Gunn nodded, slightly surprised. "It came up in the autopsy reports," he said, in a perplexed manner. "You know what that means?"

"I do," Angel said, as he tapped the file. "It means that they're all members of the Circle of the Black Thorn."

"The what?" PastBuffy asked, looking at Angel in confusion.

"The ultimate representatives of the Senior Partners- powerful forces of evil- on Earth," Angel explained, looking around at the others as he spoke. "The Circle works in order to further the senior partners' agenda, including man's inhumanity to man and various apocalyptic scenarios. Being chosen as a Black Thorn makes you the Senior Partners' instrument on Earth, and many evil beings see it as an honour."

He looked over at Fred, Gunn, Spike and Wesley, noting their confused expressions as they stared at him. "I would have told you guys about them, but I only found out they even existed myself a couple of weeks ago; I was still trying to figure out what to do about them."

"How'd you find out they existed?" Dawn asked.

"Before Cordelia died, she gave me the ability to have a single vision," Angel explained, looking over at the young girl. "I saw the Circle- not enough to identify them, but enough to show me they existed- as well as that tattoo I just mentioned. I was trying to figure out a way to convince them that I wanted in so I could destroy them from within, but I just couldn't come up with a decent plan; the only way to get their attention was to kill one of my 'lieutenants', and I couldn't do that."

"But to get rid of the Partners' ultimate agents…" Wesley breathed.

"It would have been a kamikaze mission anyway; the second the Circle falls, the Senior Partners destroy whoever pulled that stunt off," Angel added, as he looked at the others. "I wasn't prepared to see you all die just for a moment's victory; just to show the Senior Partners, for a single moment, that they couldn't control everything."

Then he sighed as he stared at the file. "Which is why this doesn't make any sense; why kill the entire Circle, and why haven't we seen any sign of the Partners' wrath yet?"

* * *

"Unless…" PastBuffy commented, looking up at Angel in inspiration, "unless maybe they _knew_ about it?"

As the others turned to look at her, PastBuffy continued. "You know; maybe this guy we're dealing with wanted the Partners to help him pull off whatever he's planning, and he recruited a bunch of some of your old enemies to help him prove himself or something?"

* * *

The group stared at PastBuffy for a few seconds, and then Buffy spoke.

"How come _I _didn't think of that?" she asked, looking at her past self.

PastBuffy shrugged. "Who knows; maybe it's just because I'm less experienced?" she said dismissively.

"Yeah, that might work," Fred put in. "You know, she's younger, isn't _quite _as used as the rest of us to dealing with extremely difficult adversaries, so she finds it easier to think of the obvious option?"

"Can we focus on the obvious issue here?" Kennedy asked, looking around at the others. "I mean, if this guy's got some of your old foes on his proverbial payroll, surely we should be focusing on who _else _he's got?"

"Oh, that's easy enough; the Beast and, based on what I heard of him, Caleb," Gunn put in. "The photographs aren't good enough to make out anything well, but the Beast makes a pretty distinctive silhouette, and Caleb's white collar stands out a bit anyway."

"WHAT! _CALEB!_" Xander cried, looking over at Gunn in horror.

"Um… a guy dressed like a priest with enough strength to tear through a whole room of demons?" Gunn asked. "It sounded like him."

* * *

"Oh God…" Angel said, as he and Buffy looked at each other in horror.

_Caleb, Drusilla, the Beast, whoever that 'Adam' guy is, an evil version of Willow, _and _Angelus? _Angel thought to himself.

_It's official; we're in deep shit._


	14. Rituals and an Attack

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Angel, or any associated characters; I just own this plot, Heure, and Brindil. I don't own Duana; he's a creation of Jaclyn Blackrose.

Feedback: Naturally

**Pinkyblue-ice: **You wanted more, and more you shall have

**IWRY-ALWAYS: **Strictly speaking, it's not _all _the big bads; just those who had the most muscle and have a certain emotional impact on the group

**Minorcadence:** Yeah, I'd gathered, but it's always nice to hear that my work's appreciated

**Julyhearts:** Indeed; that _was _the whole point of the tension between them

**charli92:** Glad to hear it, and hear it is

**WhiteWolf 3:** But the question is, my dear Wolf, will even _that _be enough…?

**wackycavegirl: **More or less; there's Dracula and the other original demons I've created, but otherwise you've seen everyone the Scoobies are up against

A Buffy from the Past

"Ugh…" Willow muttered, as she dazedly blinked her eyes open. "Did someone get the number of that truck?"

"Willow?" a voice said from off to one side. "Are you OK?"

"Uh… Fred?" Willow asked, looking over in the direction of the voice to see the brunette physicist. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, everyone else is occupied with working out what kind of apocalypse we'll be dealing with- well, Wesley's trying to find somewhere that our opponents could be working from, but the rest of us are doing research- so I was sent down here because, well, a physicist isn't really much use in tackling that kind of issue, and we needed someone to see when you got up-" Fred began, before Willow stopped her with a raised hand.

"Wait wait wait; we've got an _apocalypse_?" she asked, looking at Fred in confusion. "What did I miss?"

"Well… a lot, really," Fred said, looking at Willow with a slightly nervous expression. "You see, that demon that knocked you and Angel out…?"

* * *

Angel, Spike, Faith, Kennedy, and the two Buffies looked up in surprise as a faint '_WHAT!_' suddenly sounded from somewhere further down the corridor; it wasn't loud enough to attract the attention of the others, but with their supernaturally-enhanced hearing, it was easy enough to pick out.

"Fred told her, then?" Faith asked, looking over at Spike and Angel inquiringly.

Spike shrugged. "Probably," he said casually, barely looking up from the book he was now browsing through. "That's the thing about Fred; honest, whatever else you can say about her."

"Can we focus on this, please?" Giles asked, looking over at the vampire. "We need to figure out what kind of ritual the Partners are going to perform that would actually _aid _someone else involved if we're going to get anywhere in this investigation, and so far there's nothing that wouldn't automatically kill the person at the heart of the ritual once it was completed."

"Maybe he made a mistake?" Dawn asked hopefully.

"If he was able to convince Angelus to work for him, this guy has a convincing argument," Angel said, looking over at Dawn as he spoke. "He never went into anything if he wasn't at _least _ninety per cent certain he'd get out of it better off than he'd been when he went into it."

"Only ninety?" Gunn said, looking at Angel in surprise. "I would have thought he'd be more of a perfectionist."

Angel shrugged. "He always acknowledged a risk of something happening," he said dismissively. "He knew nobody could plan for everything, but he could get close enough to make most unexpected twists work to his advantage."

"Most, but not all of them, right, Peaches?" Spike said, looking over at him with a small smile. "Like when he was trying to awaken Alc-"

He stopped, a glare from PastBuffy reminding him that, regardless of what the present model thought of him, _she _wouldn't hesitate to stake him if he brought up Angel going to Hell again.

"Anyway," Xander said, trying to defuse the sudden awkwardness that had arisen between the vampire and the temporally-relocated Slayer, "getting back to business… couldn't the guy have not told Dead-boy 2 _everything_, just enough to keep him interested?"

Angel shook his head. "It wouldn't have worked," he said, as he continued to browse through the book in front of him. "He may have been prepared to serve the Beast's master without knowing everything, but that was only because the 'Master' was holding my soul as a bargaining chip; Angelus wasn't exactly keen on getting stuck in my psyche again."

"But…" Faith began, before Giles looked up from the book he was currently browsing, a look of horror on his face.

"Oh no…" he said, looking at the others in horror.

"What?" Gunn asked, looking at Giles inquiringly. "What's the problem?"

"I found the ritual that our foe must be planning," Giles said, as he looked up at the others. "An extremely dangerous one; it's know as the Ritual of Transference."

"Eh?" Xander said, looking at Giles in confusion. "Are you sure you got the right one; it sounds more like something to do with teleportation."

"No, when it says 'transference', it refers to body energy and power, as well as a certain degree of mass, although no more than 25 grams of it," Giles explained, as he studied the information in front of him. "It seems as though the person casting the ritual uses it to form a link between themselves and the Senior Partners, and then the ritual takes a certain amount of the subject's mass to form a new body for the Partners. For the first few minutes after the ritual's completion, the Partners possess all the weaknesses of the being whose mass they have absorbed, essentially being little more than the subjects' 'clones', if you will, but then their own powers assert themselves and they assume their own bodies and powers."

"And, lemme guess, they're practically unstoppable in their own form?" Faith asked, raising an eyebrow as she looked over at Giles.

"Correct," Giles said, nodding at Faith in approval. Then he sighed. "And, of course, they gain a fourth, reserve Partner in the form of whatever being was used to provide the mass for the ritual."

Angel, Spike and Gunn looked over at Giles in horror at that statement.

* * *

"Wait a minute; a _fourth_ Partner!" Angel asked, hoping that Giles was mistaken. "But… but that…"

"Wouldn't be good, to put it mildly, right?" PastBuffy asked, looking over at Angel. "I'll take it these 'Partners' are pretty dangerous?"

"They've been trying to organise an apocalypse since concepts such as Good and Evil actually existed," Angel replied, looking back over at Buffy. "I think that makes them a problem."

"We don't know much about them, but what we do know, we haven't liked the sound of," Gunn added, as he slammed his book shut and looked around at the others. "Essentially, they're major players on the side of Evil, and they've been an important force just about everywhere; we even ran into evidence of them in another dimension once. If they're coming to this dimension, _and_ getting another member…"

"We're screwed?" Dawn asked politely.

"That's a radical understatement of the situation we'd have if that ever happened, but essentially yes," Gunn replied.

"Oh, trust me, you've got more than enough problems to be going with at the moment," a voice suddenly said from the door.

The group spun around…

And, standing there, as bold as brass, a long bony claw extended from his left arm while a grenade launcher was attached to his right, with an expression on his face that _might _be a grin but could just as easily have been a sneer, was Adam, looking around at them all with a gleam in his eyes.

* * *

As the Slayers and the two vampires took up a combat stance in front of the others, only one thought crossed Buffy's mind as she stared at the cyborg, last seen lying at her feet as she held his power pack in her hand.

_Round one_.


	15. The Twin and the Cyborg

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Angel, or any associated characters; I just own this plot, Heure, and Brindil. I don't own Duana; he's a creation of Jaclyn Blackrose.

Feedback: Naturally

**Serrafina: **Well, you'll be getting some of the bigger ones dropping in as well; the only reason it's _Adam _here is that felt like using him first

**CF:** Here you are; sorry it took so long

**lessthanangelic1:** Well, sorry you're getting confused; hopefully later chapters will clear things up, but I might try and update it to be easier to understand later

**pinkyblue-ice:** Here you are, and I just hope it's been worth the wait

**SWChica2005:** Yes, that bit _will _be a problem, but trust me, I have a plan to get around that…

**wackycavegirl:** I'll try, but I'll have to wait and see; as things stand, I can't see _how _'Fish-boy' could get involved in this plot…

**EGBC: **Well, he does, but he probably won't mention it until he really needs it; at the time when he was cornered by the Buffies, the marriage comment was a better choice, in his opinion

**angel1002: **Sorry this took so long to come up

**Mysterious-Vixen:** Thanks for that; hope you still like it

(AN: If I'm wrong in saying that one of Adam's arms is mechanical and the other's a demon's, I apologise; I just can't remember what he looked like, since it's been ages since I saw any episode featuring him)

A Buffy from the Past

For a few moments, it was all still; the Buffys, Faith, Kennedy, Spike, and Angel were all just staring at Adam, trying to read some sign in his body language that he was about to attack, while the other, more human members of the group were already trying to figure out if there was anything around them that they could use as a weapon against this demon/human/cyborg opponent before he could hit them…

Then Adam lashed out at the nearest target- Kennedy- with his bone spike, and the blow was only narrowly deflected by a well-timed roundhouse kick from the new Slayer. With a speed that was fast enough to even impress Buffy, Kennedy then vaulted into the air, spinning around before launching a kick at Adam's head…

Only to have her leg grabbed in his other hand and be thrown off into the left wall of the conference room.

As Kennedy slumped down to the ground, blood trickling from a wound in her head, Adam turned around to smile at his other opponents.

"Who's next?" he asked inquiringly.

Instantly, Buffy, Angel, Faith and Spike all leapt towards Adam simultaneously, their combined strength briefly knocking the powerful demon to the ground. Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, Buffy turned around to look back at her past self, who was apparently uncertain whether they should be attacking Adam or not.

"Get everyone _out _of here!" she said, indicating their friends. "We can manage, but we need to be sure the others aren't being targeted while we're busy!"

PastBuffy seemed about to protest, but then nodded and glanced back at the others in the room.

"You heard… me, let's _GO_!" she yelled at them.

* * *

"Oh God…" Willow muttered to herself, shrugging her jacket on as she ran towards the sound of battle, Fred close behind her. "What's _causing _that?"

"Um, I don't know, but… well, no offence, Willow, but are you _sure _you should be running towards it?" Fred asked, looking at the witch nervously as they ran. Willow had grabbed her jeans and a jacket as soon as she'd woken up, but she was still wearing the gown she'd been changed into a few minutes before she'd woken up; the doctors had assumed that, being only human, she'd have been unconscious for far longer than Angel had been, so had been preparing her for a long rest.

"Fred, if they're in trouble, magick could make the difference between life and death for somebody!" Willow yelled back at the physicist as she rounded a corner. "I don't have _time _to wait until I'm better!"

"Indeed," a voice said from outside a nearby window.

Fred froze.

A very _familiar _voice… she'd been hearing a variation of it for the last few minutes, after all.

Then another window a few feet down the corridor suddenly exploded inwards, showering the floor with glass shards as a tall, beautiful woman, dressed in a dark denim jacket and jeans, with eyes as black as her hair, floated through the large hole in the wall and turned to look at the two women with a slight smile on her face.

Fred paled.

If this woman wasn't Dark Willow, she'd _really _hate to see what Willow's evil twin looked like…

The woman smiled at Willow.

"Hello, dear sister," she said, raising a hand in a 'wave'. "Care to dance?"

Willow, apparently deciding to let her actions talk for her, charged towards her double and punched her in the jaw…

Sending her _flying _into the _ceiling_?

"Wow…" Fred said to herself, as she looked at the red-headed witch. "Your magick?" she asked.

Willow glanced back at her friend and nodded briefly.

"A little bonus of my powers; they let me channel enough strength to last against a Slayer of Buffy's calibre in a fight," she explained, before turning back to her double. "Get help; I'll handle her."

As Fred watched, Willow charged at her other self once again, this time ploughing into her with such force that the two of them crashed through another window and ended up…

_Hovering _outside the building?

As Dark Willow regained her senses and launched a bolt of lightning at Willow, Fred swallowed nervously and ran along the corridor towards where the sounds of the earlier fight were still raging.

She could only hope that things weren't as bad there as they were here…

* * *

"_Get back_!" Angel yelled, grabbing Faith's jacket and yanking her out of the path of Adam's bone spike as the triborg lunged towards her, unintentionally helped in that direction by Spike kicking him in the back of the head. As Faith was pulled out of harm's way, Angel lashed out at Adam with a quick punch of his own, hitting the monster in the nose before his foot met Adam's jaw at the end of a desperate swinging kick.

"Don't kill him; we need to know _what _he is!" Buffy called over to Angel, from where she had staggered to her feet after a lucky blow from Adam had thrown her off to the side.

"What? B., we _know _what he is, we don't need anything else!" Faith yelled out, as she ducked under another swipe from Adam's claw as she tried to get in closer to their foe.

"No, I mean, is he _actually _Adam, or is he just a clone of some sort?" Buffy explained, as she dived forward, grabbed Adam's bone spike, and lashed out with a kick that forced the demon's arm forward, causing the spike to break off as Adam roared in pain. "I mean, if this guy we're dealing with could pull _my _past self into the present, couldn't he have done the same for Adam and those other guys?"

"Oh, I get it," Faith said, as she dodged a wild punch from Adam's other hand. "You mean, if he's Adam from the _past_, then we can't kill him because that'd change history?"

Before Buffy could reply, Adam lashed out with a powerful punch, sending her once again flying back, hitting the wall and slumping to the ground only a few feet away from the still-unconscious Kennedy.

"BUFFY!" Spike and Angel yelled in horror, as they stared at the fallen body of the woman who, in their own way, each of them loved…

Then they felt hands close around the backs of their necks (Spike's was organic while the one holding Angel was mechanical in nature) and haul them up in into the air, and they knew that their problems were nowhere _near _over…

"Well well," Adam said from behind the two vampires, sounding like he'd just heard a good joke. "I hear you got a soul, Spike? What a grave disappointment that is; I wouldn't have minded the chance to work with you again."

Spike shrugged. "I made my call; don't regret it," he said, as he tried to stare nonchalantly at Adam as the triborg tightened his grip on the vampires' necks. "And you _had _your bloody chance anyway; what the hell are you doing back?"

Adam chuckled as he brought Spike closer to him, until the two of them were practically nose-to-nose.

Then the almost happy expression on his face vanished, and he just glared at Spike.

* * *

"That is something you shall never know, Spike," Adam whispered, as he began to tighten his grip on the peroxide-haired vampire's neck…

Only to suddenly be distracted by a sudden crunch from the arm that was holding Angel.

Spinning around to look in that direction, Adam's eyes widened in horror as he saw Angel, one hand grasping and scraping at the hand around his neck while the second one tore fragments of circuitry out of the mechanical arm.

The vampire's eyes met Adam's, and he grinned.

"Take that," he whispered, his fingers tightening over a new batch of cables.

Even as Adam released his grip on Spike to try and throw Angel off, the dark-clad champion had already torn the cables out of his foe's mechanical arm. A brief shower of sparks erupted from the damaged area, and Angel was released from Adam's hand, the connections that sent it signals from Adam's brain having been severed with the removal of the cables.

"NOW!" Angel yelled at Spike, who was still lying on the floor where Adam had dropped him. As though it had been pre-arranged rather than a spur-of-the-moment plan, the two vampires lashed out at Adam with two powerful kicks that sent the monster flying back through the glass wall of the conference room, crashing into Harmony's empty desk and shattering it before hitting the ground.

* * *

"Cut that a bit close, didn't you?" Spike asked, looking over at Angel inquiringly as he got back to his feet. "What if the hand had just shut down when you tore out the cables?"

Angel shrugged. "I figured it wouldn't; those kind of things always seem to me to be designed to be as much like real arms as possible, and we both know what happens when tendons are severed in real life," he said, trying to sound dismissive of what he'd done.

However, the look in his eyes having finished that speech told Spike more than words ever could.

They'd both seen first-hand what could happen when tendons were severed. Angelus had experimented with it as a means of slow killing back in 1883, but had given it up on the grounds that it was too hard to do the damage properly without killing the victim straight away.

And neither of them wanted to _ever_ have to be reminded of those days again; both of them, Spike especially, had been tempted to go back, but they were past that now.

Angel broke the awkward silence by jerking a thumb at Adam, after taking a quick glance to make sure that the Slayers were all still breathing well.

"Shall we?" he asked.

Spike nodded.

"Glad to," he replied.

As Adam staggered back onto his feet, the two vampires were on him, punching and kicking at the modern-day Frankenstein for all they were worth.

* * *

Outside the building, getting higher and higher as they traded magickal blows, Willow and Dark Willow were ducking it out. So far, baring Willow's early blow, neither of them had managed to inflict any kind of long-term damage on the other, and every subsequent magical blow had done no more than provide a momentary distraction as the other cast a spell to negate it.

"Just GO _AWAY_!" Willow yelled at Dark Willow, tears streaming down her face in frustration and fear as she launched another energy ball at her foe, which was caught by Dark Willow and extinguished easily.

"Oh, but I can't do that, little tree," Dark Willow said, smiling at her other self as she performed a brief series of aerial somersaults, getting gradually higher as she rose. "Why struggle? I just want to give you what you wanted when you birthed me…"

That did it; Willow had now had enough.

Raising her hands, she extended all her fingers out as far as she could, and launched bolts of electrical energy at her twin, forming a massive cage around her.

"I DID _NOT _WANT _THIS_!" Willow yelled at Dark Willow, knowing even as she yelled it that, on some level, she had wanted it… that, on some level, this thing in front of her was the more honest part of herself, even if her behaviour seemed uncannily like Drusilla at some point…

Dark Willow seemed about to say something, but then cocked her head off to one side, as though hearing something.

She sighed.

"Oh damn… Frankie's getting beaten," she said, before looking back up at Willow. "Love to stay and chat, but I have to go now."

Then, before Willow could do anything, Dark Willow waved her hands, the electric cage disappeared, and she was…

Flying towards a window in Wolfram & Hart?

"NO!" Willow screamed, diving after her other self, knowing even as she began to fly that she couldn't move fast enough, that her twin would beat her to whatever room it was she was heading towards…

Then the two witches were crashing through the window of the conference room, a magical shield deflecting any glass from cutting them (Willow extending more shields to shield the unconscious bodies she saw lying around in the room, more concerned about stopping her other self than in registering who was who), and Dark Willow was handing for the fight in front of them…

Right before Willow rammed into her back, knocking her to the ground with a violent crash.

Looking up, she saw Angel and Spike turning to look at her in confusion, while in front of them, more battered than she'd ever seen him in the past and his mechanical arm in pieces, was…

"ADAM!" she screamed.

"Indeed," a voice said from below her. Before Willow could reply, she found herself pinned to the ceiling, Angel and Spike had been thrown against the nearby walls, and Dark Willow was cradling the wounded Adam in her arms as she looked up at her other self.

"We'll be back, sister," she said, smiling at her before patting Adam lightly on the shoulder. "But, right now, we have to go."

Then, in the blink of an eye, Dark Willow and Adam had vanished, and Willow had fallen back to the floor, whatever spell keeping her up having been negated by her double's disappearance.

Through the momentary pain that spread over her body from the impact, Willow groaned in frustration.

_That _could have gone a lot better…


	16. Tracking and Dividing

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Angel, or any associated characters; I just own this plot, Heure, and Brindil. I don't own Duana; he's a creation of Jaclyn Blackrose.

Feedback: Naturally

A Buffy from the Past

"Oh God…" Buffy muttered, as she blinked her eyes open. "What _happened_…?"

"Basically?" a voice said from off to one side. "You got your heads handed to you by a demented resurrected Frankenstein, who then bailed out with some help from my evil twin after he nearly had his arm torn off by our old friend Angel. But, hey; at least we're all alive, right?"

"W… Willow?" Buffy asked, as she staggered to her feet and looked over at her best friend, who was currently helping Spike and Angel back onto their feet. "You're… you're OK?"

Willow looked back at Buffy and smiled, her appearance only slightly marred by a few cuts and bruises here and there.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said reassuringly. "Everyone is; I just got a call from Fred that she ran into… um… you and the others. They got down to the main entrance hall, but then they say Adam and Dark-Me flying away, so figured they didn't need to go any further; they're coming back up to join us."

* * *

"Ugh… _flying_ away?" Spike muttered, clutching his head as he staggered to his feet; he still hadn't quite recovered from his earlier battering at Adam's hands. "Why the hell would she do that; couldn't she have just _teleported _away to wherever it is these buggers are hiding out?"

"She's playing games," Faith put in from off to the side, where she was staggering to her feet clutching her head. "She's trying to make us think we don't matter to her; that she's only letting us live because she thinks we're… _funny_."

Buffy looked over at Faith with a critical eyebrow raised. "When were you such an expert on the psyche of the bad guy?"

"Since I _was _one, B.," Faith replied, shrugging slightly as she looked back at her sister Slayer. "What, did you think I didn't go after you guys twenty-four seven because I couldn't be bothered? Or used that poison on Angel just because I felt like it?"

"Could we just forget that and focus on the main concern here?" Angel put in. He always hated being reminded of that part of his life that took place shortly before he'd had to leave Sunnydale.

Him nearly _killing _Buffy when she'd made him drink her blood still left him wondering how she managed to let him stay near her…

"Our main concern being?" PastBuffy asked, as she and others entered the trashed conference room; either she hadn't caught what Faith had said about the poison, or she was choosing to ignore it for the moment.

"Our next move, obviously," Willow said, smiling briefly at Kennedy as the third Slayer staggered to her feet, supported by Faith. The other Slayer returned the witch's smile with a weaker one of her own as the mismatched group left the trashed room.

* * *

"OK then, let's get down to business," Buffy said, as she moved up to the head of the table. The two groups had gathered in an alternate conference room after the situation had been explained to those who hadn't been present at Adam's attack, and now Buffy was recapping the situation. "We've got a rough idea of what the bad guy's planning, and we know he's got some of our old adversaries working for him… So, now what?"

The combined Scooby and Fang Gang (As Fred and Lorne had affectionately referred to their little gatherings on some occasions) looked around at each other for a few moments, before Spike coughed politely.

"Couldn't we just cast some spell to show us where they're hiding out?" he asked, jerking a thumb at Willow. "I mean, we've got a witch on our side; why not use it?"

"Spike, I can't just cast that kind of spell with nothing, no matter how powerful I am," Willow said, sighing. "I need something that actually _belongs _to the people I'm searching for before I can do something like that."

"Well… one of them _is _your evil twin," Gunn put in. "And Angel's double's a member of the group as well. Couldn't you just use something that belongs to you two to find them?"

"It wouldn't work," Willow said, shaking her head. "Even if Angelus and Dark Willow _are _still, technically, _us_, anything Angel or I own is just what _we _own; I'd need something that's uniquely theirs, and Angel and I don't have anything like that."

She cursed under her breath as she slumped back down into her chair. "Great; the _one _time a memento of that part of our lives would help, and we don't have anything…"

PastBuffy sighed and stared up at the ceiling. "Well, since _that _idea was a total failure, does anyone else have any ideas?" she asked, looking around the table.

Angel coughed to attract attention, and then raised his hand.

"There _is _one possibility," he said, as he looked around at the others. "It just occurred to me that we might be able to use Angelus against them."

Buffy and PastBuffy looked at Angel in surprise.

"What?" they both said, evidently confused.

"I gotta second that motion," Xander said, looking over at Angel as well. "How could- or rather, _why would_- Dead-Boy 2 help us? I thought you said he'd be convinced that he'll get something out of helping these guys or he wouldn't be working with them? Why would he betray _them _to help _us_?"

"He wouldn't _know _he was helping us, Xander," Angel said, as he looked over at the young man with a despairing roll of his eyes before he turned back to look at Buffy and Willow. "It just occurred to me… before, when he and I shared a body, I could always hear his thoughts in my head. I didn't pay much attention to them- he never really had anything interesting to say- but, well, it just occurred to me…"

Willow realised what Angel was proposing before he'd even finished his sentence.

"You're thinking that maybe, if we tapped into the remains of that link between the demon and the soul, you might be able to hear what Angelus is thinking at the _moment_?" she asked.

Angel nodded.

Buffy looked over at Angel inquiringly.

"Um… you sure that something like that'd be safe?" she asked. "I mean, wouldn't you basically be giving Angelus access to your head at the same time?"

"Nah, I'll make sure this is strictly a one-way-thing," Willow assured her friend, before looking back at Angel. "But, seriously, are you sure you want to do this? I mean, what if he figures out you're there and, I dunno, kills your mind or something?"

"Oh, you mean like when Freddy Kruger killed kids in their dreams in _Nightmare on Elm Street_?" Gunn asked.

"Freddy who?" Giles said, looking over at Gunn in confusion.

"Serial killer in a series of movies; the guy was given the power to hunt children in their dreams as revenge on their parents for killing him by three dream demons," Gunn explained. "Whenever the kids died in their dreams, they died in the real world as well; think they often took the injuries that killed them into the real world as well."

He looked over at Angel and Willow. "You sure that couldn't happen in this case as well?"

"Nah, not going to happen," Willow said, smiling reassuringly at her new friend. "I've seen some of the movies myself, and in all of them, Freddy was a deliberately active presence in the minds of the children; Angel'll just be a passive observer at best. Angelus couldn't detect him unless he _knew _Angel was there, and how could he know that unless one of us told him?"

"Ah," Buffy said, nodding in understanding.

"Well; let's get on with things," Spike said, as he looked over at the witch and the vampire. "If I know my bloody grandsire, he isn't going to be happy just sitting around waiting for someone to kick his arse- or waiting to kick _their _arse, which is what he'll actually be planning."

"Yeah," Angel said, as he looked over at Willow. "Where do you want me?"

* * *

Angel sat opposite Willow on the other side of his desk, Willow's hands raised around his head in a manner that resembled Vulcans preparing to mind-meld. The others had withdrawn to the weapon rooms to arm themselves for the next attack, but everyone knew that, right now, Angel's next move was the only thing that might give them an advantage in this struggle.

Willow smiled slightly at her old friend as she began to chant the words of the spell under her breath, looking his eyes as she did so. As the spell neared its climax, Angel's eyes began to close, and, by the time Willow had finished the spell, his eyes were shut. To all intents and purposes, he now appeared to be asleep, but Willow had merely put him in a deep trance until she could get what she wanted from the link with Angelus.

"Angel?" she said, in a low voice. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes…" Angel whispered, sounding almost intimidated, like a child reading under the bedcovers while trying to avoid being found by his parents. "Be careful… _he's _here…"

"He?" Willow asked, leaning forward eagerly. "Angelus?"

"Yes…" Angel whispered, his eyes flickering as though in REM. "He's angry… he's upset that he couldn't be allowed to help… he's yelling at someone… they're assuring him he'll have his chance…"

He shook his head, as though clearing it. "He's calming down… someone- or some_thing_, it's hard to tell- is giving him a back massage… he's saying that he never knew selling ancient relics could get you such a comfortable place in this city…"

His eyes popped open as he stared at Willow, the trance broken by the shock. "I know where they are."

Willow was about to speak, but then Gunn and Xander entered the room, both of them apparently in a significant panic about something.

"What?" Willow asked, looking over at the two of them in annoyance; they'd just been making progress with the link to Angelus…

"We've got the Beast and some guy the Slayer side call Caleb tearing up downtown!" Gunn yelled.

If it was possible for Angel to get any paler, he would have.

"The Beast?" he said, staring at Gunn in shock.

"_Caleb_!" Willow said, looking at Xander in horror.

Angel swallowed slightly, stood up, and looked over at Xander and Gunn.

"Where are the others?" he asked.

"In the training room; they thought it might be best to get in a bit of sparring practice," Gunn said. "Do we know where these guys are?"

"Yeah, we do," Angel said, as he looked at Gunn. "You remember Gwen's apartment where we tried to hide Manny?"

"Yeah…" Gunn said, looking at Angel in momentary confusion before realisation dawned. "He's in that building?"

"I saw it through his eyes; it's almost the same apartment," Angel replied. "Too bad Gwen isn't there anymore; we could use her help in this situation…"

"Gwen?" Willow asked, looking at Angel in confusion.

"Electricity-controlling thief we've met once or twice," Angel explained. "That must be part of the reason that whoever gave Angelus a separate existence set up his base there; he wants us to be able to find where he is easily when the time comes."

"Any chance he wants us to find him easily so he can give us beer and crisps?" Xander asked.

The other three looked at him as though he'd grown a new head, and Xander shrugged.

"A guy can hope, can't he?" he asked defensively.

Angel just rolled his eyes and headed out of the door, the other three close behind.

* * *

As he entered the training room, Angel was relieved to see that everyone was making an effort. Even Dawn was trying to get in a bit of practice, trading blows with Harmony while Buffy, in the middle of her practice fight with Kennedy, kept on looking over to make sure that the blonde vampire didn't do anything to her sister.

Angel couldn't really blame her; no matter how Harmony had changed in the last few months, she was still a vampire with_out _a soul, and he wouldn't trust her as far as he could throw her.

_Hell, she wouldn't even _be _here with the others if we didn't need everyone we've got_… Angel mused to himself, as he looked around the room and, raising his hands, clapped them sharply together once to get everyone's attention.

"We've got the location of the base, but we've got another problem," he said, looking over at Faith and Buffy in particular as he spoke. "The Beast and Caleb are attacking downtown."

Everyone in the room was horrified at that revelation, albeit to different extents; the Scooby Gang were more horrified at Caleb, while Angel's team were more shaken by the fact that Beast was back. Faith was the only person who looked equally horrified by both revelations, but everyone else (Baring PastBuffy, for obvious reasons) was definitely shaken by this new turn of events.

To her credit, Buffy recovered first. "So… what's the plan?" she asked, looking at Angel curiously. "Split up and take them on?"

"Pretty much, but that wasn't my only plan," Angel explained, as he looked around the room. "Faith, Wesley, Lorne, you're with me; we'll be going after the Beast. Buffy, you take Spike, Kennedy and Willow and try to take out Caleb. Giles, Gunn, Xander, uh… Buffy…" he said, faltering for a moment, before he indicated PastBuffy to clarify which one he was referring to, "you four head over to the base- Gunn knows where it is- and try and find out anything more you can about our villain's plans."

"And us?" Harmony asked, looking inquiringly at her boss. "What do we do?"

Angel sighed as he looked back at his secretary. "You, Dawn and Fred just stay here and try and find out if there's any way we can stop our adversary from using that ritual we think he's planning to perform," he said. "We'll need to cover every possible angle to stop these guys before they can get everything together."

"Right," Fred said, giving Angel the thumbs-up. "We'll do what we can; don't worry about that."

The various groups split up and began to head off for their respective locations.

None of them could know that, by the time this fight was over, three of them wouldn't be coming back.


	17. Death is Her Gift

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Angel, or any associated characters; I just own this plot, Heure, and Brindil. I don't own Duana; he's a creation of Jaclyn Blackrose.

Feedback: Naturally

AN: If my portrayal of Caleb isn't right, I apologise; I never saw much of him in the series. I'm basically portraying him as a stupidly strong nutcase who regards the First as God and himself as its agent facilitating its coming, but I'm open to corrections

A Buffy from the Past

"Nice car you've got here, Angel," Faith commented, looking over the limousine that Angel had piled his 'group' into with an approving smile on her face. "Any chance I can have one of my own?"

Angel shook his head as he turned the car out of its parking place and began to drive towards the garage exit. "No offence, Faith, but unless you have a driver's licence, I'm not sure that would work out too well," he replied, as they reached the exit and drove out into the sunlight (Faith nearly reached over to shield him before she remembered the tinted windows the group had mentioned to her; Wesley and Lorne, at least, had grown used to the idea already).

"Ah, c'mon, can't you bend the rules a little bit?" the Slayer asked, trying to assume a puppy-dog-like pleading expression as Angel pushed down on the accelerator and began to drive as fast as possible towards the Beast's last known location. Glancing back, his eyes briefly fell on the car containing Buffy, Spike, Kennedy and Willow as they headed off in Caleb's direction, and he couldn't help but cross his fingers that everything would work out and everyone would come back from their fights, even if the foe in question wasn't defeated.

"_No_," Angel replied firmly. Then he glanced over at Lorne and Wesley. "Just remember; you two stay back and attack the Beast with our long-range weapons any chance you get. Faith and I will do what we can, but you two need to stay back and avoid getting too close."

_I'm not losing anyone else if I don't have to_… he privately promised himself; losing Cordelia had been hard enough…

Then, as he turned another corner, a massive brick-red form suddenly ploughed into the front of the car, forcing the front of the bonnet down with such incredible force that the limo was sent flying into the air.

Angel and Faith didn't even stop to think; kicking their doors open, they tore the backs of their seats out of their position before tossing them out of the car, reached back and grabbed one of the two people in the rear of the limo (Faith grabbed Wesley and Angel Lorne), and then dived out of the shattered doors before the car had even hit the ground.

Looking back at the location where the limousine had been before it briefly tried to impersonate Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Angel swallowed nervously at the sight before him.

It was the Beast, as large as life and twice as ugly as Angel remembered it. Looking over at the mismatched group before it, the monster smiled.

"Angelus," it said, grinning briefly at the vampire as its eyes moved to look at Faith. "And a Slayer? You _are _trying harder this time."

"I defeated you once," Angel said, glaring at his foe. "I can beat you again."

The Beast just chuckled as it looked at Angel. "_You _did not defeat me," it said, almost sounding like it was trying to stop itself from laughing as it faced the vampire, although its voice made it hard to tell. "It was your true self that performed that action- and in any case, I would hardly call 'avoiding my punches' actually _defeating _me."

Angel shrugged slightly as he glared back at the Beast. He really hated the Beast's implication that Angelus was smarter than him- they were the _same basic person_, for God's sake; how could one of them be smarter than the other?- but he wasn't about to give the Beast the satisfaction of making the first move in the fight.

After his last few encounters with this guy, he knew that the only chance anyone would have of winning would be if the Beast attacked first; he was powerful enough, but his bulk came at the cost of a slightly lower speed at close quarters than was possessed by Angel or Faith. If he could goad the Beast into making the first strike, and then keep him busy while dodging the punches, they might just have a chance at stopping him…

"Y'know, come to that, why are you _working _with Angel's dark twin this time round after he killed you the last time you two played?" Faith asked, looking critically at the Beast. "Didn't that kinda tick you off?"

Despite the situation they were now facing, Angel couldn't help but feel slightly happier at the expression that now crossed the Beast's face at this moment. It was hard to work out precisely _what _it was, given that the Beast's face generally resembled a very ugly statue, but the expression in its eyes, at least, was unmistakeable.

Surprise.

"What…?" the Beast said, staring at Faith in confusion. "I was… _killed_… by Angelus? But I am invincible!"

"Ok, so you knew you weren't around any more, and you thought you were _alive_?" Lorne asked, staring at the Beast in confusion. "What; did you think you left when we asked you nicely to find somewhere else to terrify?"

"No…" the Beast said, staring at the group in horror and ever-mounting rage. "No… I could not fall… I could _never _fall… it was that accursed _clone_ of me…"

"Clone?" Wesley said, looking up at the Beast in confusion. "You mean Angelus killed a _clone_ of you? But who created it?"

The Beast didn't bother to answer; he just lowered his head and charged like the bull his horns so resembled. Fortunately, as before, this Beast seemed too slow to be a truly dangerous threat; he had a great amount of raw strength, true, but he lacked the speed to use it effectively against Angel and Faith, and even Lorne and Wesley could just about outmanoeuvre him now.

As the Beast's charge halted shortly before hitting a nearby building, and he turned to glare at his opponents, Angel could only hope that their slight speed advantage over this guy would be sufficient to take him down…

* * *

"You mean _this _is it?" Buffy asked as she stared incredulously around the area they'd arrived in. "_This _is where Caleb has set up shop?"

She had to admit, it didn't match the traditional surroundings she'd come to associate with the First's prime agent of destruction. Back in Sunnydale he had favoured hiding in old deserted buildings; here, if the information they'd obtained was actually referring to Caleb rather than someone who just _looked _like him, Caleb was attacking a part of L.A. inhabited by some of the better-off citizens in the city, and attracting _way _more attention than he had attracted back in Sunnydale…

Then Buffy reconsidered, remembering that, back when Caleb had been unleashed on Sunnydale, there hadn't many people left whose attention he _could _attract…

"Yeah, this is it," Kennedy said, nodding in confirmation at Buffy as she glanced around at her surroundings, scanning them constantly for any sign of the individual they had come here to stop. "Guy seems to be a bit absent at the moment…"

Then there was a loud crash as something shattered behind them, and the two Slayers, one witch and one vampire spun around, find themselves facing the form of the tall, fair-haired 'preacher' known as Caleb.

"Ah, you're here at last, Slayers," he said, before turning to look at Spike and Willow. "And you brought some friends to watch you die."

"No; to watch _you _die," Buffy retorted, as she, Spike and Kennedy shifted into a combat stance, Willow stepping back slightly to prepare a spell of her own. "Go ahead; give us an excuse to start it, huh?"

Caleb smiled. "You can't win, you know," he told them casually, apparently not even worried about them attacking him. "The First shall always prevail; from what I've heard since I got here, even your little attempt to blow up your home town to stop it barely slowed it down. What makes you think you can win against his prime agent, especially now that my strength remains with me even _without _the First hanging around?"

"Well, a lotta things, really," Kennedy retorted, glaring at Caleb. "For one thing, there's four of us and one of you; for another, we _all _have superhuman strength (Well, three of us; Willow can upgrade her strength if we need it); and for a third…"

She shrugged. "Well, we already kicked your ass once; what's a few more times?"

Buffy smiled in agreement at Kennedy's comment, trying not to think about the fact that the last time she'd fought Caleb, she'd had the notable advantage of having a magically-enhanced scythe that could cut through anything in her hands, which was something that she no longer possessed at this precise moment in time and space after it had been destroyed by the spell Willow had performed in Sunnydale.

Caleb didn't even seem that put out by her comment about having already stopped him; he just smiled, raised his hands, and lunged forward, striking Buffy and Spike with two simultaneous punches even as he lashed out at Willow and Kennedy with a spinning kick that somehow didn't knock him off his feet due to his sudden lack of balance…

Or it _wouldn't_ have knocked him off his feet, if Kennedy hadn't managed to grab Caleb's foot and spin him by it, sending him crashing into a nearby wall as Willow ducked away from the centre of the combat; as the physically weakest member of their team, even with magical assistance, it only made sense for her to stay out of harm's way for the moment.

Buffy was briefly surprised at the fact that it was _Kennedy_ who was able to knock Caleb out of the running, but, on reflection, realised that it made sense; after all, Caleb was used to fighting Kennedy when she only had normal, human strength. He hadn't made the necessary adjustments in his fighting style to accommodate Kennedy's new strength, and that mistake had cost him a good chance to take them down.

She just wished that Kennedy was slightly stronger; as it was, there wasn't much hope that she or any of them would be powerful enough to get under Caleb's defences and actually do some damage to him, and they didn't have the scythe to give them an extra advantage in a combat situation…

Then the solution hit her.

They_ did _know where at least one stupidly large and sharp object was located that would probably be able to do some serious damage to Caleb.

All they had to do was lure Caleb into the right place for it to be used, and hope that their combined raw strength would be enough to get it off…

"Willow!" Buffy yelled over at her friend, as she charged forward and kicked out at Caleb, drawing his attention away from Kennedy. "Do the telepathy thing; I have an idea!"

_Right_, Willow said in her friend's mind, and Buffy smiled; she'd been worried that Willow might not be able to pull this trick off again on such short notice. _What's the plan this time round_?

* * *

"DUCK!" Angel yelled over at Wesley, who was nearly struck by a kick from the Beast before his friend's warning came through; evidently their foe had learned a new trick or two since the last time they fought. So far, the fight was working out about the same as the first time the Beast had tackled four of them; they were keeping the Beast distracted at the very least, but so far that was all that they were only managing to pull off.

Angel had _never_ wished that shape-shifting was a part of a vampire's natural abilities more than he did at that moment. True, he couldn't think of _anything _that would get past the Beast's defences- baring the obvious possibility of the clouds of dust that Dracula was known to turn into now and again- but it still might allow him some time to think of a better plan of attack if he could fly out of harm's way for a few moments…

_ANGEL_! a voice suddenly yelled in his head, just as Angel attempted to dodge a blow from the Beast. Deciding he might as well find out what it was about, he decided to roll with the Beast's next blow and make it appear as though he had been sent flying into the nearby alley.

_Yes_? He asked, hoping his memories of the time Willow and Buffy had done this when facing the Turok-han served him correctly. _What's up_?

_We've got a plan_! Buffy 'said' in his mind, her voice sounding nervous despite the fact that telepathy, in Angel's experience, only transferred the most basic of emotions in the communication. _Just keep him busy; we're trying a few levitation tricks here to get Caleb over to you, OK_? _Once he's there, we _think _we'll be able to try something to take him out_!

Angel didn't bother to protest; he could sense Buffy's calm conviction about the plan. If she felt that certain that the plan would work, than it would most likely work; the kind of faith she felt here wasn't the sort of thing that came at a moment's notice.

As Lorne was sent flying by another blow from the Beast, Angel could only hope that they arrived here sooner rather than later…

* * *

"Just stop _ducking_, willya?" Spike roared, as he lashed out with a desperate flurry of punches at Caleb. He had never been more grateful for it being a cloudy day; whether that was just because of natural luck or because their unknown foe wanted to leave himself room to unleash vampire assistance if the need arose, he wasn't sure, but either way he saw no need to find out.

"Why should I give you a chance to strike back, blasphemer?" Caleb retorted, glaring at Spike as he launched a light-hearted punch at his foe which, thanks to his ridiculously high superhuman strength, was still sufficient to knock the vampire off its feet. "Didn't you learn _anything _the last time you challenged me and the First? We _can't _be stopped, remember?"

"Oh, I wouldn't say that," Willow said, attracting Caleb's attention for the first time; she'd stayed out of sight after his first blow had nearly taken her head off, preparing herself for this current move, and now she was ready to strike. "We _do _have one or two ideas that should manage to get you to take a hike…"

Raising her hands, she waved her fingers, a burst of blue light emitted from them…

And then Caleb found himself flying several feet above the street, staring down at the rapidly-shrinking forms of his former foes in shock as they dived into a nearby car and began to chase after him.

Desperately, Caleb tried to grab on to something to halt his wild flight, but it was proving far harder than he'd originally anticipated; if nothing else, the witch was somehow able to keep him just near enough to the walls so that they were temptingly close, but simultaneously far enough away that he couldn't reach them whenever he tried to do anything…

And then he hit the ground, was sent flying back along the road in a manner that vaguely reminded him of a movie he'd seen a trailer for (_The Matrix Revolutions_, although he couldn't remember who'd been in this position) and only stopped when he hit a car with such force that the car itself blew up, sending him flying once more into a nearby wall.

"Ow," he muttered to himself…

"You think _that _was bad?" a voice said from behind him. "Wait until you see what _else _we've got planned."

Caleb's eyes widened in shock as he recognised the voice.

The _other _Slayer was here as well?

Then a sharp kick to his head sent him crashing into the wall once again, and, for a brief moment, he lost all consciousness.

* * *

"LORNE!" Angel yelled over to his friend, as he saw Buffy's car heading towards them at a rapid speed. "Give us a moment to get ready, and then hit the high notes!"

"Right-o, Angelcakes!" Lorne called back, as the vampire lunged forward and kicked out at the Beast once again, sending the massive creature staggering back. Glancing over at his friends, Angel was relieved to see that Faith was still moving, Caleb having been briefly immobilised by a rapid kick to the head, and, like Wesley and himself, was already pulling out the earplugs that he'd handed out to his group on the way down. In a matter of seconds, the earplugs were in, and, after making sure that Buffy's car was still far enough away for them to be unaffected, Angel gave Lorne a quick thumbs-up, and the green-skinned demon tilted his head back and let out a high-pitched scream that, even through the earplugs, was enough to give Angel serious earache.

As for the Beast and Caleb, the effects were even more noticeable; blood began to leak from Caleb's ears as his hands weakly moved up to the sides of his head, and the Beast noticeably winced as the scream resounded through the air, although there were no other physical signs of the damage…

Then the one part of the plan that Angel had delegated to himself, that he'd accepted was _his _responsibility, was taken by somebody else.

Faith leapt up onto the Beast's back, grabbed both horns in her hands, and pulled.

"NO!" Angel yelled to her, only realising after the words had left his mouth that they all still had their earplugs in; Faith couldn't hear Angel even if he was right beside her, and until Lorne stopped the scream there was no way he could get to her without putting her in even _more _danger…

* * *

As Faith took the Beast's horns in her hands, she smiled grimly, and could only hope and pray that her current gambit paid off. She knew that the Beast was powerful, of course- the way he'd battered her about so easily in their last encounter proved that, if nothing else- but right now, with that scream of Lorne's scrambling his and Caleb's brains, she was betting that the Beast was more than slightly weakened already.

Besides, after all the training she'd done over the last year, she was sure that she was significantly strong than she'd been in their last fight. It might not be enough to make a major difference, but she was sure that she was able to exert a great deal more force than she would have in the past, as though the spell that had activated the potentials had enhanced the current Slayers as well.

_Just… hold… _on… Faith thought to herself, straining hard as she gripped the Beast's ram-like horns, praying that she had enough strength to just do this…

Then they broke off in her hands.

If it was possible, the Beast roared even louder at this latest injury, brilliant gold light bursting from his horns as he raised his hands to clutch at the stumps. Desperately, Faith leapt off his back, lashing out with her feet to send her foe staggering as she did so, the horns clutched in her hands like the oddest stakes in history.

"Hey, Slappy!" she yelled at the Beast, Lorne having stopped the scream after seeing Faith tear the Beast's horns off. As the others turned to look at her, Faith only just registering the car that was approaching them from down the street containing much-needed backup, she smiled.

"Got a little something for you," she said, grinning at the Beast and Caleb.

Before the ex-priest could do anything, dazed as he was from Lorne's earlier assault, Faith had lunged forward and plunged one horn into his chest, piercing his heart as though he were a vampire being hit with a common or garden stake. Faith, however, didn't have the time to make sure he bought it; as soon as the stake was in, Faith had spun around and was lunging at the Beast, the remaining horn clutched in her hand as she lunged for his chest…

Then, much to her surprise, she felt something hit _her _in the chest.

"FAITH!" a multitude of voices cried out from around her as she looked down at her chest and, with an almost medical detachment, that the Beast's arm was in her chest, his entire right fist having penetrated the skin. It felt like he'd grabbed something, but Faith couldn't be sure what…

"Goodbye," the Beast said (Based on Faith's knowledge of lip-reading), apparently chuckling as he said it.

Faith grinned weakly back at him.

"You first…" she gasped, as, with the last of her strength, she raised the horn to shoulder height and plunged it into the Beast's chest, around where the heart would be in a human being.

As the Beast's head reared back, brilliant gold light spreading from all over as he began to explode, Faith grinned weakly as the grip in her intestinal track relaxed.

"Five… by… five…" she gasped weakly, as she watched the Beast collapse into nothing in front of her…

Then she fell back to the ground. She vaguely registered people running towards her, gathering around her body as though trying to figure out some way to save her life, but she knew that it was no good.

As the world began to grow dark, a bright white light apparently shining from just above her eyes, Faith smiled.

She'd single-handedly stopped two of the most powerful foes they'd ever faced.

At last, she had achieved redemption in _her _eyes, as well as in the eyes of others.

She smiled once at the face that, through her hazy vision, looked most like Angel…

And then Faith was dead.


	18. Another Death in the Family

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Angel, or any associated characters; I just own this plot, Heure, and Brindil. I don't own Duana; he's a creation of Jaclyn Blackrose.

Feedback: Naturally

Back from the Past

"Are you _sure _this is the right place?" PastBuffy said, glancing over inquiringly at Gunn as he stopped his truck in front of a relatively large apartment building- maybe around twenty stories high- in an expensive yet simple style; it was predominately grey in colour. "Just, no offence, but this seems a bit… up-market for these guys?"

"Oh, you mean compared to the stuff you've dealt with back in… well, your own time?" Xander asked, glancing inquiringly over at PastBuffy. "Yeah, I know Angelus and the Master weren't exactly in the most upmarket areas, but trust me; after your time, we encountered more a few villains with a more comfortable, elaborate set-up."

Giles sighed as he glanced over at Xander. "As I recall, the only villains you believed to have an 'elaborate set-up' were Glory and the Mayor, particularly since the First didn't even _have _a 'base' in a real sense of the word," he said critically to Xander. "Unless you've changed your assessment of some of our past foes; I thought you said yourself that underground bases were cliché and unimaginative- to say nothing of 'uncomfortable to a degree that even the _Mole Man_ would find stupid', to quote your exact words- when we were dealing with the Initiative and the Trio?"

"The who and the who?" PastBuffy asked her former Watcher as the four of them walked towards the side door.

"Exceptions to our normal rule of dealing with single foes; those two were groups rather than individuals," Giles explained, as Gunn pulled out a lockpick and began to fiddle with the door. Based on the groups' past experiences in dealing with the villains' headquarters, there was less chance of there being spells alerting anyone to the presence of intruders around the main door itself. After all, as their two groups commonly reasoned, why would the bad guys assume that their foes would walk through the front door if their adversaries thought that they could sneak in through another route? It made more sense to cover the less obvious routes than to use the energy that was needed for that to work to cover _every _possible exit…

As well as that, the spells necessary to provide twenty-four-hour protection over a building'sentrance and exit could take a long time to cast and cancel, and rarely, if ever, came with an incantation that would allow them to simply be turned off long enough for someone to walk into the building. With that in mind, having even the _door_ of a building alarmed was not entirely practical, unless their opponents wanted to waste ages cancelling the spell whenever they wanted to go outside.

"Right…" PastBuffy said, Gunn continuing to work on the lock as they spoke. "So, what were those guys _exactly_?"

"Well, the Trio were basically a bunch of nerds who wanted to destroy us through technology and magic; fairly effective at what they did, but one of them eventually began to lord it over the other two, he got betrayed, and two of them died; the third's working with us as a reserve Watcher these days," Xander explained casually, as Gunn opened the door and the four of them entered the complex. "The Initiative was part of this demon-hunting Government operation- they actually created that 'Adam' guy you tackled earlier- but the place was shut down after we trashed their operation while dealing with Adam once and for all; I think it was filled with cement."

Recalling their current circumstances, Xander chuckled sheepishly as he looked at Buffy. "Well, OK, maybe we didn't deal with Adam 'once and for all', but at the time we _thought _we'd put him down for good…"

"Never mind about the specifics, Xand; I get the point about who they were, and that's enough," PastBuffy said, glancing around herself as they entered the building. "God, some people should just leave the supernatural world to the experts rather than assume they could do better just because they've got fancy degrees…"

"Sssh!" Gunn hissed back at them, stretching back an arm to pin Xander to the nearby wall, PastBuffy doing the same thing to Giles. As they hid against the wall, trying to avoid making too much sound- vampire senses weren't _quite_ so high that they could hear the heartbeats of anyone around them, but they could still hear them if they focused- Angelus and Dark Willow walked past, chatting casually as they walked.

"… think the odds of this guy pulling it off are good?" Angelus asked, raising a curious eyebrow at the dark witch beside him.

"Oh, the ritual has potential; it just needs _me _to provide the necessary power," Dark Willow smiled, as she raised one hand and flexed her fingers, creating brief dark sparks as she did so. "Trust me; give me a little time to warm up, and everything will…"

Unfortunately, that was the extent of what the infiltration group could here; their two foes subsequently turned a corner and were out of audible range. PastBuffy vaguely heard what sounded like an elevator, suggesting that the 'clones' had gone upstairs, but that was about it.

Looking over at her new/old friends, PastBuffy raised an eyebrow enquiringly.

"Shall we follow them?" she asked.

Gunn shrugged. "We've come this far; might as well keep going," he said. He stepped forward as he spoke, evidently eager to begin, but Giles placed a hand on the former street fighter's shoulder and stopped him.

"No; the four of us would make too much noise, no matter how hard we tried to conceal ourselves," he said, as he looked around at the other three, Gunn having turned to look critically at him. "Buffy and I will go- if the worst comes to the worst, she's the best at defending herself of the three of you- and I might be needed to work out whether there's anything we can do to disrupt this 'ritual' Dark Willow mentioned."

"And we are expected to… what, just wait around here?" Gunn asked, glaring critically at Giles. "I was expecting a _bit_ more to do, you know."

Giles just shook his head apologetically, shrugged once as though to make it clear that he had no say in how things had turned out, and walked on into the building. As PastBuffy moved after him, Gunn opened his mouth to say something, but Xander reached over, grabbed Gunn's arm, and shook his head.

"It's not worth it," he said, looking apologetically at the demon-hunter-turned-lawyer. "Trust me; when the G-man makes up his mind about something, it's hard to make him change it, especially when even _you _know he's got a point in the first place."

As the sound of a door opening and closing briefly sounded through the corridor, Gunn could only groan and nod.

"Yeah, I guess that's true…" he said dejectedly, as he reached out to place one hand on the wall, as though to steady himself, and looking back at Xander. "I just… hate being the fifth wheel in these things, you know? I started fighting vamps 'cause I wanted to make a difference, not to sit on the sidelines when something major's going down…"

"Tell me about it," Xander said, as he and Gunn sat down and rested their backs against the wall; they were still alert for danger, but there was no sense in being uncomfortable while they waited for something to happen. "At least only _half_ of your team's got some kind of extra that helps them out in a fight; Angel, Spike and Harmony. Me, I've got a witch and a whole bunch of Slayers; Dawn and Giles are the only members of my 'core' group who _don't _have something extra, and even Dawn used to be the Key and the G-Man's got the booksmarts."

Gunn sighed again as he took in Xander's words.

"Yeah, I know what you mean- we do our best, but you can't deny that it sucks being the one who contributes least to the team when push comes to shove," he said, as he glanced over at his new friend. "I mean, Fred's got the science smarts, Wesley's got a ton of occult knowledge, Angel and Spike have the combat experience… hell, Lorne's got the empathy thing and even _Harmony _has more raw strength than me."

Xander winced slightly at that last comment.

"That _is _bad…" he said.

"Tell me about it," Gunn said, as he jerked a thumb at his head. "Why else do you think I got this legal mumbo-jumbo stuck in my head? I was trying to make a more major _difference _to the group, other than extra muscle…"

He snorted sarcastically. "Fat chance, really; the stuff's going away already, and I've got no idea why. Still trying to decide what to do about it, to be honest…"

"Why?" Xander asked, looking inquiringly at Gunn.

"What?" Gunn replied, confusion evident on his face as he looked back at Xander.

"Well, why is it suddenly so important to you that you have to have something to actually _contribute _something to the team?" Xander explained, as he shifted slightly to make himself more comfortable before continuing. "Did it ever bother you before you ended up here?"

Gunn opened his mouth to reply, but Xander held up a hand and he stopped, allowing his new friend to continue.

"Look, all I'm saying is, I've been at this for seven years, never really bringing anything to the fight other than an extra pair of hands, and I've never felt like I needed something else in order to make me feel needed," Xander explained, trying not to think about how the soldier training he'd acquired on Halloween had sometimes been useful; he'd never asked for it, and he rarely had the chance to use it, so he didn't count it as a real 'power'. "Sometimes, it's not whether you can actually _do _anything that's the important thing; it's that you're _there_. When you get down to it, we may be in a war, but it's not the kind of war where you get a medal if you come back; often, nobody else even knows about it."

"Yeah…" Gunn said, as he looked curiously at Xander, wondering where the young man was going with this.

"Look, the point is, for this kind of battle, you _don't _fight to get recognition; you fight because it's the right thing to do. In many wars, soldiers didn't have anything that made them stand out other than just a willingness to be there, and they still kept fighting; _they _didn't need to do anything more than be there, and they still made a difference. When push comes to shove, what would you rather have; a power of some kind, or the feeling that you've really made a difference in the fight?"

Gunn didn't answer; he just stared blankly ahead, his expression neutral.

However, he didn't need to speak to answer Xander's question; even with one eye, the 'One Who Sees' could tell that he'd made a point that would give his new friend and ally something to think about.

The only question now was if they'd survive long enough for his comments to make a difference in Gunn's life on a long-term basis.

* * *

Meanwhile, on an upper level of the building, PastBuffy and Giles were walking up a flight of stairs towards the seventeenth floor- the floor that the elevator carrying Angelus and Dark Willow had stopped at, according to the indicator above the call button. 

Fortunately, the stairs, while fairly close to the elevator, were still far enough away so that anyone coming out of them shouldn't be too obvious to anyone standing by the elevator, so PastBuffy was hoping she'd have time to assess the situation when they reached the top. They had no idea what the situation would be on the floor in question, but they saw no sense in taking unnecessary chances by taking the elevator up, even if it would be more direct.

As they reached the seventeenth floor, PastBuffy waved Giles back as she leaned forward, pressing one ear against the door as she listened carefully for a moment before smiling and looking back at Giles.

"Seems OK; doesn't sound like there's anything DIRECTLY on the other side, at least," she said, smiling reassuringly at her mentor.

"Well, that's something," Giles said, adjusting his glasses slightly as he looked at PastBuffy, concern evident. "Are you sure you're comfortable with this? I mean, you _did _just… kill… Angel in your timeline-"

PastBuffy held up a hand.

"_Don't_," she said, bluntly. "Start me thinking about that, and I don't think I'll be able to handle this; I'll be too busy trying to get over it. Angel being alive can't get rid of the guilt; all I can do is try and get over it long enough to put down Angelus, and then… well, I'll take it from there, OK?"

"Uh… right," Giles said, uncertain what else to say, as PastBuffy quietly opened the door, taking a brief peek before opening it fully.

As what lay on the other side of the door was revealed, Giles was glad to see that it seemed fairly straightforward to work out where Angelus and Dark Willow had gone after leaving the elevator. There was a corridor leading towards the elevator from the stairs, and a large wooden door was located a few feet down the corridor from the door, but nothing else. There could be spells of concealment somewhere, he acknowledged, but he doubted it. Even with the best sorcerers, given a ritual of the scale their foe was likely planning, it was unlikely he would want to waste energy on camouflaging spells.

_Especially when he probably doesn't think anyone can get in here in the first place_… Giles thought, as PastBuffy crept up to the door and pressed her ear against it once again. After a few moments, she smiled and glanced back at Giles.

"Nobody seems to be in there," she whispered; evidently she still believed in being careful, even if there was no real evidence that there was going to be a problem. "I'll just take a peak…"

Gently easing the door open, she peered into the room, and smiled in relief; for the moment, it was empty. It was a large stone room, resembling the interior of a cathedral, and, glancing up, she noted that it seemed to stretch up to the top of the building. The roof was made of glass and the sun was shining straight onto the floor, which at least suggested that she wouldn't have to worry about Angelus and Drusilla.

A large pentagram was literally _carved_ into the stone floor of the room, with candles at the points, and a thick stone 'throne' was in the centre of the circle. A book lay on a desk in front of the throne, opened at the middle, with various ornate weapons lying around the book. A glance around the room revealed at least three other doors at the corners, one of them half-open; presumably, Dark Willow and Angelus had gone through that one.

"Seems empty," PastBuffy said, looking back at Giles. "Let's move; we've probably not got much time before someone comes back."

Nodding grimly, Giles followed her to into the room, the two of them heading straight to the desk in the middle of the pentagram. As PastBuffy picked up one of the daggers on the table, glancing anxiously around her in case someone entered, Giles walked around to study the book, nervously adjusting his glasses once more as he looked at the writing.

The first sentence was all he needed to see to know the situation was bad.

"Oh God…" he said, as he looked back at PastBuffy.

"What?" she asked, looking back at her Watcher.

"We were right; they're intending to perform the Ritual of Transference," Giles said, his face pale as he looked at his former charge. "These peoplemust have already made contact with the Senior Partners; the Pentagram can only be carved- literally carved; it solidifies the connection necessary for the ritual- once contact has been made with the demonic power that is involved in the ritual."

"Ah," PastBuffy said, swallowing nervously as she glanced at the pentagram around them. "We're in trouble…"

"_That_ is an understatement," Giles said, nodding grimly as he glanced back at the book. "Well, at least this confirms my theory as to why whoever's behind this is going to so much effort to keep us distracted; this kind of ritual would normally attract a certain amount of attention, but what with our assorted past adversaries striking at us, coupled with the problem of… well, you… being here, we've been so focused on trying to work out why they're all back that we wouldn't normally have the time or people available to see if there's anything else going on…"

"But they didn't expect that we'd have the resources to split up, huh?" PastBuffy said, looking hopefully at her Watcher. "I mean, why else have we managed to get this far without anyone spotting us, right?"

"Possibly…" Giles said, as he glanced back at the book. "On the bright side, they've still got a while to go before they truly succeed. According to the book, this kind of ritual draws energy from a certain planetary alignment between the Moon, Mars, and Pluto- hence, presumably, the window in the roof."

"The Gods of War and Death, huh?" PastBuffy said, looking up at the sky. "Well, at least it makes sense…"

Then a thought occurred to her and she glanced anxiously at Giles. "Uh… how long have we got before that alignment takes place?"

"If the book is accurate…" Giles said, looking briefly back at the book before turning back to PastBuffy, "they'll be ready in a few hours; it's hard to be more accurate right now."

"A few _hours_?" PastBuffy said, her face paling slightly. "That's all we've got left until this starts?"

"Indeed; we need to get moving as soon as possible," Giles said, looking back at PastBuffy as he indicated the door they'd come by. "We've already pushed our luck; if we stay much longer-"

"What; you'll get caught by the bad guys?" a voice said from off to the side. "_Damn_, and I actually gave you enough credit to think thatthis trap wouldn't work out…"

PastBuffy's eyes widened in shock.

"_Angelus_!" she said, as she and Giles spun around in the direction of the voice. Sure enough, Angelus and Drusilla were standing at the door directly opposite the one they'd entered by. There was no immediate sign of Dark Willow, Adam or Dracula, but PastBuffy wasn't too worried about them at the moment; the earlier conversation suggested that Dark Willow would be taking time out to gather her energies for the ritual, both Adam and Dracula had seemed, if she allowed herself the use of such a poor pun, _'armless_ the last time they'd fought…

"Got it in one," Angelus chuckled, before the grin faded from his face as he stared at them. "Now then, you've got two choices. The guy who brought us all together left _specific_ orders that we were to capture anyone who came up here and interrogate them; figure out what you know already, that sort of thing…"

For a moment, PastBuffy tensed, ready for battle, but relaxed slightly when Angelus spoke again. "However, since I, personally, am such a good sport, I'll give you a fighting chance; if you can get to the door you entered by before I _get_ to you, you can both go free. After all, why win if there's nobody to beat, right?"

If PastBuffy hadn't been so anxious to get away from the creature that she'd, however, inadvertently, brought back into the world, she might have stopped to wonder why Angelus was offering them such a good deal. After all, with the sunlight still shining on the pentagram, he and Drusilla would have to go _around _the light or risk burning to death, and she and Giles could easily reach the door by then…

It would be a significant start on their opponents, if nothing else; she doubted _either _of the vampires before her would be able to close it before they'd reached the street.

She made her decision. Grabbing Giles' arm, PastBuffy turned and ran for the door, glancing back to see where Angelus and Drusilla were…

_And they were running _through _the sunlight_!

_What_? PastBuffy thought, stopping at the edge of the pentagram in shock at the sight behind her. _But… but…_

However, her train of thought was interrupted; abruptly, as though he had been planning it all along, Giles grabbed her by the shoulders and shoved her out of the door. As she stumbled into the corridor, PastBuffy heard the door slam behind her, as well as the sound of a key being turned and snapped.

"GO!" her Watcher's voice yelled at her. "_You _can't _die here; RUN_!"

For a moment, PastBuffy stayed, trying to decide whether she should obey the order or try and save him anyway…

But, in the end, reason won out; on her own, she could never last against Angelus and Drusilla, especially since they had at least five years' worth of experience compared to when they had last fought (To her memory, at least).

Besides… he'd been right.

_She _couldn't die here; what would that do to the timeline?

_Goodbye…_ she thought, staring at the door, hearing only the vaguest sounds of a struggle through the thick wood…

Then she turned and ran, tears streaming down her cheeks as she was forced to abandon the man who had been more of a father to her than her real father.

* * *

As the door slammed shut before him, Giles smiled grimly. He knew that this could only result in his capture at best, but if he could save Buffy's past self from her foes, the world would still have a chance… 

As the vampires came ever closer, Giles reached into his pocket and, grabbing a crucifix, he spun around, hitting Angelus directly on the cheek with the holy artefact in question. Roaring in rage and pain, the Scourge of Europe fell back, clutching his face, allowing Giles to pull out a stake and lunge towards Angelus' chest…

Only for Drusilla to grab his arm and rapidly twist it behind his back, causing him to briefly yell in pain and drop the stake. Before he could do anything else, she had pinned the other arm behind his back as well, and her other hand was pressed against his throat, nails tight against the skin as Angelus grinned wickedly at the Watcher.

"Well well well…" the vampire said, as he stared at Giles, the cross-shaped burn on his cheek already fading as he grinned at the man. "So, we got the Watcher, hmm? Looks like I _finally _get to try the chainsaws…"

As Giles stared into Angelus' eyes, gleaming sadistically at the thought of what was coming, Drusilla's hand tight around his throat, he knew that, sooner or later, they would be through with him, and they would know what they wanted to know. Either he would tell them what they wanted to know after a prolonged period of torture- he wasn't entirely clear on what they might want, but he was prepared to bet it involved knowing what their foes knew so far) or they would simply turn him and use his presence against Buffy to act as a psychological weapon afterthey'd found out what the group knew of their plans.

Neither option could be allowed to happen. The idea of their opponents accelerating their schedule of attack, when his allies still had so little real knowledge of the situation at present, was bad enough, but the thought of a vampire version of himself, with all his knowledge and experience,stalking the others…

Giles shuddered.

He wouldn't force the Scooby Gang, or Angel's team, to have to deal with something like that.

He wouldn't condemn the closest things he'd ever had to children, nephews and nieces- and maybe a brother in Wesley's case, although he'd never have admitted it to the other Watcher's face- to death at the hands of his own 'body', even if he would never know about it himself.

That left one option, and he could just hope that, if this kind of thing really _was_ a sin, the Powers That Be would be willing to overlook this transgression given the reasons for it.

As he felt Drusilla's nails around his neck, he leaned back slightly, giving his neck a bit of slack, and then lunged himself forward, allowing the nails to dig into his throat and tear the skin away from his throat, exposing his vocal chords and windpipe to the air. As he fell forward, he heard Drusilla scream in rage, vaguely hearing Angelus curse in frustration from off to the side…

And, as he finally fell towards the ground for the final time, as the last traces of his soul and mind left the body once and for all, a single thought was prevalent.

And in that thought was the name of the young woman who had taught him to be more than a detached Watcher giving information to a 'soldier', and who had become the closest thing possible to being the daughter that he would never have had the chance to have in reality…

_Buffy_…

Then Rupert Giles hit the ground, all life having fled from his body.

* * *

AN: If anyone's wondering how Angelus and Drusilla could run through the sunlight, the window above them was lined with the same material that allows Angel to walk past the windows of Wolfram & Hart; it blocks the ultraviolet rays that would normally kill vampires 


	19. The Beginning of the End

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Angel, or any associated characters; I just own this plot, Heure, and Brindil. I don't own Duana; he's a creation of Jaclyn Blackrose.

Feedback: Naturally

Back from the Past

When footsteps began to pound down the stairs from further along the corridor towards them, it was only a matter of _milli_seconds before Xander and Gunn were on their feet and ready to strike back at whatever bad guy came at them, even if it _was _practically impossible for them to actually _stop _any of the opponents they'd be going up against.

However, as PastBuffy came charging down the stairs, tears in her eyes as she sobbed uncontrollably, it didn't take Xander and Gunn long to realise that something had gone _seriously _wrong in her and Giles' attempts to find out more about the situation they were dealing with.

"Wha-" Xander began, before the young Slayer reached them both, grabbed their arms, and dragged them back towards the door to the outside world.

"_GO_!" she yelled at them, kicking the door open as she sobbed fiercely in between her distraught words. "We _have _to go… we have to _stop _these people… Giles told me to run…"

"Whoa, girl," Gunn said, stepping in front of PastBuffy and clasping her shoulders, as Xander looked anxiously between them and the corridor. "What's wrong? What happened back-?"

"_Giles is DEAD_!" PastBuffy screamed at Gunn, her cheeks turning red as the tears streamed down her face, sobbing desperately. "_Those BASTARDS killed him_! _He shoved ME through the door and GAVE his LIFE_!_ He's GONE for GOOD_! _He's DEAD_! _He's DEAD and_… _and_…"

And she stopped talking, grabbed Gunn around the waist, and sobbed uncontrollably into his shirt, as Gunn and Xander looked at each other in horror (Albeit with a slight hint of awkwardness on Gunn's part due to the sobbing girl in his arms; he still didn't know Buffy well in the _present_, never mind her _past _self, and hadn't exactly been expecting to need to comfort her in this state).

"Oh my God…" Xander said, staring at his friends in horror. "Giles is _gone_?"

"OK, it's official; we have _got _to get going," Gunn said, indicating the truck as he pulled back from PastBuffy, although he made sure to keep a comforting hand on her shoulder. "If that guy's dead, we are _definitely _not dealing with a minor problem; Wes's mentioned him a lot, and if his info's accurate, I doubt the guy'd give his life to prevent anything less than a near-certain Apocalypse."

"Yeah…" Xander said, nodding almost automatically as he began to walk towards the truck. "He wouldn't do something like that unless he was sure there wasn't an alternative… he'd have had a good reason for doing it… we have to go… we have to…"

Then, to Gunn's horror, something came charging out of the corridor leading into the building, striking Xander in the side and sending him flying into the truck that was still his favoured means of transport.

A _one-armed_ something that could move about in the sunlight, flying in the face of all the information that made it clear that there were certain stereotypical disadvantages that such an action should pose to him and his species…

_Oh crap_, Gunn thought, as he realised who'd been sent down to deal with the three of them; if nothing else, given what Angel had told them about the results of his earlier attempt to kill this guy, the single arm alone was a dead giveaway.

The three of them were up against Dracula himself.

A seriously shaken and probably traumatized seventeen-year-old Slayer who'd been yanked out of her own time, a guy with almost abysmal depth perception after he had his left eye literally _torn _out of his head, and a former street fighter who was rapidly losing his legal know-how, up against the most feared vampire in history?

This_ isn't going to go well_, Gunn thought to himself. Even if they'd been operating at their best, Gunn wouldn't have given much for their chances; even if they managed to stake Dracula, without the weapons Wesley's research had discovered, Dracula would just be back up a few minutes later and be after them all over again…

Gunn was just about to prepare for what had to be the most one-sided battle he would ever have faced in his life- hell, even when facing the Beast he'd at least been up against something that would _stay _dead when it exploded into hundreds of tiny pieces- when he heard a low growl from off to his side.

_Buffy_? he thought, turning to look at the young girl beside him. To his surprise, she was glaring at Dracula with a gleam in her eyes that reminded him of Angel when the guy had his vamp face on and was feeling rather frustrated with their opponent.

She looked almost… _predator_-like.

If he hadn't known that she was the Vampire _Slayer_, Gunn could almost believe that the young woman before him was a starving vampire eying her next meal.

"_No_," she stated bluntly, glaring at the man who many regarded as the father of all vampires with an intensity that rivalled any sunbeam.

Then she leapt forward, striking Dracula with a spinning kick that sent the one-armed lord of the undead staggering backwards, blood leaking from the right corner of his mouth as he stared incredulously at the young Slayer who was glaring at him as though _she_ was the vampire.

Before Gunn and Xander could do anything, PastBuffy had lunged towards him again, punching him again and again in the face every chance she got, screaming a blind scream of rage and despair that horrified the two men watching the struggle unfold before them. Dracula tried to fight back, but even with the vampire's remarkable strength, it was clear that it was a losing battle; if nothing else, he could only do so much with one arm against an enraged opponent who possessed _all _of her limbs and was in a bad mood to boot.

Under any other circumstances, Gunn would have been ready and willing to let PastBuffy try and take Dracula out right now. No matter how long such a task would take them, she might be able to at least _wound _the guy before they had to leave…

But, for all he knew, time wouldn't be a luxury they had available to them for much longer. They were still directly outside the headquarters of the demon that was planning a ritual that would trigger the apocalypse, with the man who had practically _raised _the original group lying dead upstairs, and they _needed _to tell th rest of the group what had taken place before everything went down the proverbial toiler and began to head straight to Hell- _literally_.

They couldn't spare the time for this confrontation right now. Tough or not, Dracula was still only one vampire, no matter how powerful he was, and could hardly be considered a seriously significant factor in this fight. Killing him now wouldn't really benefit anybody, even if it _was _possible

They _had _to gather the full strength of their forces before the final battle, or it was very likely that _everything _would be lost.

Besides, Gunn doubted that Dracula would be fighting alone much longer- after all, they _were _just outside the bad guys' home base.

With that in mind, they _had_ to get away from there- and get away _now_, before any of the remaining villains arrived to take them on. Dracula they might _just _be able to handle, but that 'Adam' sucker and Willow's evil twin were still unaccounted for, to say nothing of Angelus and Drusilla…

"_Buffy_!" he yelled at her, as she continued to pound away at Dracula with an ever-constant scream of frustration. "This guy could have backup showing up at any minute! We _have _to get back to the others _NOW_!"

"_They KILLED Giles_!" PastBuffy screamed back at Gunn, as she continued to pound away at Dracula, tears still flowing down her face as she yelled. "_I CAN'T let them get away with it_!"

"And all that isn't going to matter if you don't get away _now_!" Xander yelled at her desperately; his one eye was constantly flicking around as though to make sure there was nobody else coming towards them. "We've got to stop them, Buffy, but you can't just vent your frustration out by battering on this guy! You can't kill him on your own in your current state, and if we stick around here we'll probably _all _end up getting our heads handed to us! He's basically just a henchman; we haven't got _time _to just take out a _henchman_!"

For a moment, PastBuffy seemed determined to continue anyway, staring at Dracula with a focused resolve, fist clenched as though she wanted to shove her entire _arm_ right through her opponent's pale head for what he and his kind had done to the world…

Then she just punched him in the side of the head, causing his skull to collide with the ground and make an unpleasant crunching sound, leapt to her feet, and ran to the car, diving into the back seats as Gunn and Xander climbed into the car as well (Xander got into the back; he felt sure that PastBuffy would need someone to stay with her right about now).

As they drove away, leaving the dazed form of Dracula to slowly gather his full health once again, hoping and praying that none of their remaining foes would take it into their heads to follow them, PastBuffy leaned over and began to weep into Xander's shoulder, still unable to exert any control her grief at the loss of her mentor and father figure.

_Damn_, Gunn thought to himself, as he glanced at the Slayer in his mirror. _I don't know _how _we're getting her back to her own time when this is over, but it is _definitely _going to take some work to block everything that happened to her here_.

He didn't want to consider _what _could happen to their timeline if PastBuffy remembered some of the stuff that had happened to her in this time…

* * *

As he sat in his throne room, staring out at the city before him, illuminated with a deep blood red as the sun began to set, Duana chuckled softly to himself as he thought over the recent events.

He had to admit, so far, things had been going fairly well. True, the loss of the Beast and Caleb was a significant set back as far as the strength of his miniature army was concerned, but it wasn't a _total _loss yet.

After all, he still had Angelus and Dark Willow willing to attack their shared adversaries, and _they _knew the joint 'Scooby Gang' and 'Wolfram & Hart Executives' like the backs of their proverbial hands, thanks to the time their 'better halves' had spent in the respective teams.

Of course, Drusilla, Dracula and Adam weren't exactly to be sneezed at, either; it was simply that the other two gave his little army a more… personal… edge against their opponents than it might have possessed otherwise. It may have been a cliché line, but Duana had always thought that the phrase 'You are your own worst enemy' was more accurate than anyone could have suspected, and he was enjoying this chance to prove it accurate.

As he continued chuckling to himself, Duana clasped his hands and stared up at the sky above him, a small smile crossing his face as the sun approached the noon mark. Once the sun was directly above the pentagram, allowing the carving to absorb the necessary solar energy eve as it took the dark power of the alignment on the opposite side of the planet, it would be time to perform the Ritual, and then…

Duana grinned in a self-satisfied manner at the thought of the destruction that would take place once that happened.

As soon as the Senior Partners were on Earth, not even the new Slayer army would be enough to stop them from destroying the world…

* * *

"Great…" Dawn sighed, slamming the book before her shut as she leaned over the table in frustration.

"Still nothing, huh?" Fred asked, looking over inquiringly at the Slayer's younger sister from where she was studying another book.

"Not even a likely-looking _page_," Dawn sighed as she looked up at Fred. "We've gone over everything on apocalyptic rituals and how to interrupt them without making things even worse- _including _consulting a couple of books from another dimension- and what have we got to show for it? Tired fingers, tired eyes, and, quite frankly, I'm starting to feel like I should just give this all up as a bad job and get some sleep; if the world's going to end anyway, I'd probably be better off meeting it when I'm rested."

"Ugh, can we _not _start thinking about that right now?" Harmony put in from the door to the conference room that Fred and Dawn had turned into their central research room, carrying two cups of coffee in her hands. "I'd rather _not _have to deal with the possibility of Hell coming to Earth. What would I _wear _in a night out in a hell dimension, anyway; what goes well with _fire_ and blond hair?"

Glancing over at each other, Dawn and Fred could only roll their eyes in exasperation. Honestly, they were trying to prevent the end of the world at the hands of a demon who'd somehow resurrected their most powerful adversaries, and Harmony was worried about what she'd _wear _if they blew it?

_Some things never change_… Dawn mused, trying not to think about the fact that, technically, she'd never even _met_ Harmony until the vampire tried to attack their house shortly after the first fight with Dracula…

Then the door to the conference room opened and seven figures entered; Angel, Buffy, Spike, Wesley, Lorne, Willow and Kennedy…

But no Faith.

"Where's…" Fred began, but stopped as she saw the expression of sadness on the faces of the new arrivals.

No words were necessary; it was evident to the three women who'd remained behind what had happened.

"Oh God, no," Dawn whispered, as she looked at her sister. "Faith… she…"

Buffy nodded once, and then tears began to well up in her eyes as she fell forward, clasping the edge of the table, and began to sob uncontrollably, her arms only just keeping her up; if Dawn and Fred hadn't been sitting _on _the table as they were going over the information they possessed, it was possible that the table would have flipped over due to the force being exerted by Buffy against it. As Dawn ran over to hold her sister by the shoulders as she shook uncontrollably, the rest of the team headed to various chairs in the room to collapse into a seating position. For a moment, there was silence, and then Dawn spoke once more.

"H…how?" she asked, looking inquiringly at Buffy.

"She… she sacrificed herself…" Buffy gasped, sobbing slightly as Angel held her in his arms, trying to comfort her as much as he could. "She hurt the Beast… gave us weapons against Caleb… he tore out her organs with his _bare hands_…"

"Oh my God…" Fred whispered in horror as she stared at the Slayer. "That's… that's just _horrible_…"

Angel nodded grimly as he looked up at the young physicist.

"I know," he said simply, before glancing over at the other two members of the research team. "Are the others back yet?"

Harmony shook her head. "Sorry, boss; we've got nothing," she said, shrugging apologetically. "We haven't been able to track down anything useful since you guys-"

Before she could finish the sentence, however, the door opened again and Gunn, Xander and PastBuffy entered the room, PastBuffy's face still red from crying as she looked around the room at the others.

"What happened?" Willow asked, staring anxiously at PastBuffy's shaken expression. "What's-"

"Where's _Giles_?" Wesley put in, staring in concern at the young Slayer. "Did something happen to him?"

Once again, words were unnecessary to explain what had just taken place; the look in PastBuffy's eyes was all they needed to know the answer to that question.

Rupert Giles, the man who had brought together what had to be the most unorthodox group of anti-demon fighters in history, the man who had provided them with information to take out all kinds of demons and spells in his time with them, was dead.

"Oh God, no…." Dawn whispered, as she stared at the other version of her sister. "He… he can't be…."

"He is," Gunn said, nodding grimly as he looked at the room. "She hasn't told us much about it, but from what she has, it sounds like he sacrificed himself to keep Angelus and Drusilla occupied until she could get away."

"Oh God…" Buffy said sorrowfully as she stared at her past self, before walking over to take the younger version of herself in her arms, rocking her comfortingly as they sat down in one of the chairs. "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry _you _had to experience that…"

For a moment, there was silence throughout the room, as everyone in it spared a moment's silence for their fallen friends and allies, who had made the ultimate sacrifice so that others may live on…

Then Angel stood up and looked around the room, an apologetic expression on his face.

"Sorry to be harsh, but we've got more things to worry about than the loss of one man," he said, as he looked over at PastBuffy, whose sobs had faded as she looked up at him. "Buffy, I know it's hard, but… what did you and Giles _find _before…"

"He died?" PastBuffy retorted briefly, a harsh tone in her voice, before she lowered her head and swallowed slightly. "I'm sorry; it's not fair on you for me to be _angry _with you. There was nothing we could have… could have done… to save him…"

She paused for a moment, evidently collecting herself to continue, and then she spoke once more; to her credit, despite the tremor in her voice from her earlier tears, she made a clear, concise point. "Well, when we got there, there was a large pentagram carved into the floor- literally _carved_, by the way- with candles at the points and a stone throne in the middle. There's a large glass roof above it, and a table in front of the desk with a book open to the ritual and a bunch of weapons around it…"

She looked anxiously up at Wesley. "Does that fit with what we think this guy's planning to do?"

Wesley nodded grimly.

"Oh yes," he replied, as he looked around at the others before focusing on PastBuffy once again. "Giles mentioned something about an alignment of the planets that was required for the ritual to be successful, correct?"

"Oh… yeah," PastBuffy said, nodding in confirmation. "The moon, Mars and Pluto; I remember thinking that the latter two were kinda apt, given that we're talking about a potential apocalypse."

"Yeah, the Roman gods of Death and War…" Angel muttered, half to himself, before he looked up at Wesley. "This Ritual he's planning… assuming we can't stop them performing it, is there any way we can interrupt it after it's started?"

Wesley shook his head. "It wouldn't work; any attempts to kill the template for the bodies of the Partners would just result in them 'jumping ship' to the closest person to the victim. Even if we could somehow kill them at long-distance, either the Partners would use the body of the nearest civilian to complete the ritual, or they'd follow the spell back to its caster and use _them _as a template for their body."

"So, in other words, if we don't kill this guy before they've finished the ritual, we're out of options?" Willow asked.

"Precisely," Wesley said, before he glanced at a clock on the wall and groaned. "And we need to hurry; if what I recall about the ritual is right, it needs to be performed at noon- the sun and the moon are then on directly opposite sides of the Earth from each other, and the ritual absorbs the solar energy from the sun to thus enhance the lunar energy acquired from the planetary alignment on the other side of the Earth."

"Right then," Kennedy said, glancing at the clock critically. "That gives us just under an hour; we should-"

Then a loud explosion tore through the building, sending at least half of the team falling to the ground from the sheer force of the explosion; the other half only avoided a similar fate by grabbing the nearest table or chair.

"What the bloody _hell_?" Spike yelled, quickly dashing over to the door and charging out towards the main 'landing' opposite, only to quickly dash back in and slam the door behind him, an evidently concerned (If only because Spike would have blatantly denied being terrified to anyone who suggested it) expression on his face. "We've got some _serious _trouble brewing out there."

"Let me guess; every foe this guy's recruited that we _haven't _managed to kill yet has mounted an attack on the office?" Buffy asked, looking grimly up at Spike. The vampire nodded once, and Buffy sighed as she turned to look at Angel. "Does this place have some kind of… anti-demon security system?"

Angel nodded, evidently already going over what it was capable of in his mind before he finally replied.

"It could slow the vampires down at least, but if our opponent's anything like as capable as he's seemed to be so far, it's unlikely to even do that; he wouldn't be mounting an attack at this late stage unless he was _sure _his forces would be able to get through the door," he said, as he looked around at the others. "We'll have to do this the old-fashioned way; the staff here may be mostly still in favour of the way things used to be done here, but I'm not going to let anyone get killed."

"In other words, we're kicking vampire ass?" Gunn asked, looking inquiringly at Angel. As his friend nodded, Gunn smiled and nodded briefly in approval. "Been a long time since I got back to the basics."

"We have only an hour or so until the ritual's prepared; we'll have to move fast," Wesley put in, as the rest of the team turned to look at him. "Immediate priority is to get to our opponent's base before he can start the ritual and kill him; I somehow doubt anyone prepared to go to these lengths would bother to teach someone _else _how to perform it."

"So, we run the demon gauntlet and kick that sucker's ass?" Buffy asked, smiling in relief when Wesley nodded. "_Finally_, a bad guy who's at least fairly _simple _to stop."

As the mixed groups stood up, for a moment, they could all do nothing but stare at each other, each of them, in their own way, remembering those who had fallen to ensure they could be here at this point, all those who had given their lives so that the world could continue.

It had been a long, hard battle for all concerned.

Now, at last, the time had come…

And, somehow, everyone knew that this would be it.

Either they would win, and the Apocalypse would once again be averted- hopefully on a more long-term basis this time around- or the Apocalypse would come, and all they had lost would be for nothing.

And they were _not _going to have all the sacrifices made by their friends, family and allies be for nothing.

After a moment's pause, Angel spoke the words that they all needed to hear.

"Let's go."

With that, everyone in the room dived towards the door, grabbing weapons from the nearest sources, ready for the showdown that awaited them.


	20. Clash of the Titans

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Angel, or any associated characters; I just own this plot, Heure, and Brindil. I don't own Duana; he's a creation of Jaclyn Blackrose.

Feedback: Naturally

AN: Sorry about the delay; I had a real _doozy _of a case of writer's block this time around

Back from the Past

As the mass group of Scoobies and Wolfram & Hart senior staff exited the conference room to gather on the balcony, it only took a few moments for them to assess the situation at the entrance before them. Adam, as the strongest member of the attack force, was leading the assault, the earlier damage to his arm apparently repaired as he alternated between slashing with his demon arm and firing weapons with his mechanical one. Dark Willow followed close behind, her arms spread out as a shield of some sort flickered around them, deflecting the automatically-activated bullets and flamethrowers that served as Wolfram & Hart's first line of defence against uninvited supernatural attackers.

Behind Dark Willow were Angelus, Drusilla, and Dracula, the self-proclaimed 'Lord of the Vampires' holding a large sword in his remaining arm. Angelus and Drusilla were also armed, Drusilla holding two sharp daggers in her hands as Angelus's fingers eagerly flexed over the large battle-axe he had selected for this attack. Behind them were a surprisingly large group of assorted vampires, staring eagerly at their surroundings as their eyes gleamed in anticipation, some of them clutching assorted weapons in preparation for the upcoming battle.

"Aw nuts…" Kennedy muttered to herself as she stared at the small army before them. "_This _isn't good…"

"How can those vampires get _in _here?" PastBuffy asked, looking over at Angel in confusion. "I mean, even without those defences of yours, thought they needed to be _invited _in before they could get into a building!"

"Defences can be bypassed, and… well, Wolfram & Hart _is _mainly an office, so it's not actually anyone's _home_…" Fred pointed out from near the back of the group; the non-super-powered members of the team- Xander, Dawn, Wesley, Gunn, and Fred- had been almost automatically forced behind the others, as though their friends were determined to take the first wave and thus leave their friends to deal with the less dangerous issue of the vampire army.

"We don't have the time to dawdle on speculation as to _how _this is possible," Angel cut in, looking resolutely over at the group before he turned his attention back to the mass of bad guys in front of him. "We've got a veritable _army _in front of us right now, and we have to put them down _fast_."

"Agreed," Buffy said, as she glanced over at her past self and Kennedy. "You two deal with Drusilla; she's tough, but compared to the rest of those suckers, she's minor league, and… well, without meaning to be rude, you guys lack the experience of the rest of us…"

"Right," PastBuffy said, nodding in agreement; Kennedy seemed to slightly resent the reminder that she wasn't one of the more long-term members of the 'Scooby Gang', but nevertheless seemed to be resolved to tackle her selected foe as best she could.

"Willow," Buffy continued, glancing over at her friends as she spoke, "you take Dark Willow, but try and maintain focus; Angel, Angelus is all yours; Spike and I will tackle Dracula and Adam respectively. The rest of you, just take on the vampires and see what you can do; anyone who thinks they spot an opening in their defences, take it. We've only got a limited amount of time to deal with this problem; we'd better make the most of it."

As the team looked around at each other, all of them could only nod silently in resolution.

No words were needed right now; they were unnecessary after spending so long fighting side-by-side with each other for so long.

Either they won, or they died.

That was it.

With that, Angel, Spike, Kennedy and the two Buffies leapt over the balcony to land on the ground in front of the approaching 'army', Willow floating up into the air as their remaining allies grabbed whatever weapons they could from Angel's office before hurrying down the stairs to join their friends.

As soon as the two vampires and the three Slayers had hit the ground, all of them had charged forward to tackle their respective adversaries; Angel launched a punch at Angelus, Drusilla found herself knocked off-balance as PastBuffy and Kennedy struck her with two simultaneous kicks, Spike ducked Dracula's attempt to impale him on a sword before kicking the other vampire in the chest, and Buffy soon found herself face-to-face with Adam, already running through how to take him out _without _the advantage of that spell they'd used the last time they'd battled him (She strongly doubted they'd have time for this right now)…

* * *

As soon as Angel's fist was hurtling towards Angelus, he knew this wasn't going to be easy; Angelus, calling on almost eight years of knowledge of Angel's combat strategies- he hadn't really had much of a combat strategy after getting his soul back; it was only after Whistler came to him that he had any interest in taking action-, easily ducked to the side before lashing out with a quick kick to the stomach.

His face was twisted with the lust for combat, Angelus grabbed a nearby battle-axe- apparently dropped by an already-dusted minion- and took several rapid swings at his good counterpart. Rapidly dodging the blows even as they flew towards him, Angel quickly gripped his hands firmly on the axe handle, shifting the focus of the combat as the two vampires wrestled for control of the axe.

Even as Angelus snapped at Angel with his sharp elongated fangs- Angel was still in his human face while Angelus 'vamped out'-, the two vampires trying to pry each other's fingers off the heavy melee weapon, Angel knew that this wasn't working even before his attempts to gain the upper hand were 'interrupted' by Angelus's automatic attempts to counter it.

How could he stop a foe who knew his every move almost before _he _knew it?

Suddenly, a ridiculous idea came to Angel's mind.

True, Spike would laugh at him about later on if they _survived_ this confrontation, but it was a strategy that Angelus would _never _expect him to use; if it didn't give him the advantage in this fight, nothing would.

Using his own forehead, he head-butted his adversary in the face, causing Angelus to stumble back and lose his grip on the axe, clutching at his suddenly painful forehead as he blinked dazedly at his other self.

"Damn…" Angel chuckled as he stared at his 'brother', Angelus briefly shaking his head to fight off the pain. "I didn't know my forehead was that hard; I guess Spike was right!"

With a sudden malicious smirk, the pain apparently forgotten or pushed aside, Angelus straightened his back and gave his good self a beckoning motion with his right hand, a cold gleam in his eyes.

"Think you can take me?" he asked grimly. "Bring it on, soul-boy!"

Angel needed no further prompting. Instantly, he threw a vicious left hook, but Angelus quickly grabbed his wrist and elbowed him repeatedly with such strength and ferocity that Angel's ribs would have been broken at least a dozen times if he had still been human…

Of course, even as a vampire the blows still hurt, but Angel refused to give Angelus the satisfaction of knowing that.

No matter how much pain he was in, he would _not_ let Angelus have _that_ victory…!

Then, just as Angel was reaching the point where he was tempted to at least let out a brief whimper, Angelus ended his onslaught with a powerful backhand that sent Angel flat on his back. Blood spurted out of the vampire's mouth as Angelus grabbed him by the collar to bring him to his level, evil gleaming in the monster's eyes as he stared at his other self.

"Gotta hand it to you, you went pretty far," Angelus mockingly complimented as he stared at his foe. "But in the end, where it _counts_, you're only human. And humans?"

He shrugged jokingly. "Well, as we both know from experience… they're pretty weak."

Time seemed to have slowed down when Angelus pulled back his fist and launched a powerful blow to Angel's face. Angel's senses rattled vigorously, wracked with immense pain as the fist collided with the flesh of his face, Angelus's Joker grin only seemed to grow wider and wider with enjoyment as he launched a continuous series of punches at the other vampire's face.

It was like this was all a _game_ to him… a game in which the loser would die forever, ending the long feud that had begun these two men ever since Angelus was cursed with a soul over a century ago.

* * *

As she watched her so-called 'better half'- personally, she thought of the other girl as weak- rise into the air above her, Dark Willow chuckled slightly as she looked at the young redhead.

So much power and so little clue about how to use it properly…

Dark Willow chuckled as she rose up to confront the other 'her'.

_Time to give Little Miss Goody Two-Shoes a lesson in _true _power_… she mused to herself, as she moved herself into a position where she was almost directly in front of her counterpart, at least two metres off the ground.

"So," she said nonchalantly, as she gazed in contempt at her other self, "do we _really _have to do this? We both know how it's going to end…"

"Really?" Willow retorted, raising her own hands to summon a halo of fire above her, matching her 'twin's' contemptuous glare with one of her own. "'Cause, funny thing about that; as far as _I'm _concerned, this is going to end with your death; why _should _I give up?"

Dark Willow merely tutted nonchalantly as she looked at her other self, before she thrust one hand forward to unleash a brutal burst of dark energy that sent her foe hurtling backwards; Willow barely managed to halt her unwilling flight before she struck the wall behind her.

"That the best you've got?" Willow countered, glaring back at her other self.

"Why don't you find out?" Dark Willow retaliated, continuing to smirk at the lighter-haired version of herself.

Willow didn't even bother replying in words; raising her hands, she hurled a burst of magical lightening at her darker half, Dark Willow barely managing to catch the blast in her own hands before following it up with a blast of her own.

In the brief seconds between Willow's attack and Dark Willow's own assault, Willow vaulted into the air and hurtled towards her counterpart, punching the other her in the face with full strength, leaving Dark Willow's nose bleeding before she followed Willow's attack up with her own punch, Willow only just managing to deflect it before she lashed out with an airborne kick to the stomach. Momentarily winded, Dark Willow instinctively launched another magical blast at Willow, forcing her back once again before launching another, more powerful blast that left Willow's top ripped along her chest and a narrow scratch just below her breasts.

"Looks like you _can't _handle it," Dark Willow commented, smirking slightly at her other self as Willow stared at the admittedly thin line of blood stretching across her chest in slight shock, only for her eyes to narrow as she looked back at her other self.

"Trust me," Willow said, clenching her fists as she glared at the woman who had once been a part of her, a brief gleam of magic around her chest healing her cut as she raised one hand to launch her next spell. "We haven't even _started _yet."

* * *

As he rapidly collided with Dracula, his fangs bared as he prepared to pummel his long-time rival into the ground, Spike was unable to stop himself letting out a brief whoop of joy as his fist collided with the jaw of the most famous vampire in history.

"How do you like _that_, you one-armed son of a bitch?" he grinned, as he spread his arms and flexed his fingers. "You couldn't really hold your own against me when you had _both _your arms; you really think that you can tackle me now that you've only got _half _your original number of arms?"

Glaring back at his old rival for a brief moment, Dracula allowed himself a casual smile.

"There are ways," he said, as he looked nonchalantly at Spike. "Shall I… demonstrate?"

With that, Dracula launched himself towards Spike, turning into a bat and scratching at Spike's face with his small talons- one claw coming dangerously close to Spike's eye- before he 'landed' back on the ground and lashed out at Spike with a powerful punch, sending the other vampire staggering before Spike could finish turning to avoid the first attack.

"Do not presume that I am weak simply because I am _weakened_," the self-titled Count said, looking at his old rival with a further smirk. "Would you care to test that again?"

Growling as he glared at Dracula, Spike launched a flurry of punches at the older vampire, his frustration only increasing as Dracula nonchalantly parried the blows with one hand before kicking out at Spike's stomach with a powerful assault that left him staggering.

"You are too impulsive, 'William'," Dracula said, smirking at his foe as Spike glared up at him. "Have you learned nothing from all those battles you have won since we last met?"

"One… or two… things," Spike retorted, looking grimly up at the most famous vampire of them all as he gradually stood back up. "Specifically… _this_!"

Before Dracula could react, Spike had lashed out with a double-barrelled punch that struck Dracula in the shoulders, prompting the vampire to briefly gasp in shock as he instinctively grabbed his still-tender stump long enough for Spike to kick him in the groin.

"Gotta take a few… to give 'em back… at the right time," Spike said, smiling briefly at Dracula as the vampire stared at him in stunned pain. "Care to… continue this… again?"

Dracula had only just opened his mouth to speak when suddenly four shots rang out, striking the still-dazed vampire in the chest and sending him falling to the ground, a roar of agony practically erupting from his mouth as steam began to emerge from the bullet-holes.

"What the…?" Spike asked, looking around in confusion at the direction that the shots had come from, his confusion only increasing at the sight of Fred holding a gun

"Silver bullets coated with holy water and treated by Wesley's department to be particularly 'pure'," Fred explained, nodding briefly at where Dracula lay on the ground, the bullet-holes smoking as he writhed in agony. "It won't kill him- only that thing Giles found in the archives can do that, and even then I'd prefer to have him contained before we try to use it based on what it would actually do to him _before _he died-, but it should be enough to put him down long enough for you to help some of the rest of us deal with the rest of this bunch."

"Good call," Spike said, flexing his shoulders briefly as he got back onto his feet and glanced over at the small army of minions still in the lobby area.

As much as he hated to leave Dracula, Fred had a point; right now, regardless of how much he hated the bastard, numbers was their main disadvantage, and he was better equipped than most to correct it.

Pushing thoughts of Dracula aside, Spike leapt into the fray, Fred already reloading her weapon as he grabbed a decent-sized sword from the nearest minion and began to hack away at his enemies.

* * *

Buffy barely even needed to _see _her surroundings to know what needed to be done; as soon as her feet had made contact with the ground below her, she lashed out with a powerful kick at where Adam now stood in front of her, striking the powerful demon/man/machine thing directly in the face with a desperate kick.

He didn't take much actual damage from the kick, of course- his strength certainly hadn't altered since the last time she'd fought him-, but it was still forceful enough to send him momentarily staggering backwards as Buffy thrust a stake into the chest of a nearby random vampire while grabbing the sword he was wielding out of his hand.

"Nice weapon," Adam said, raising his human eyebrow as he looked at her, before raising his flesh hand and activating his Polgara spike. "Can it compare to this?"

"Good question," Buffy replied, spinning the blade briefly as she glared at the 'triborg' before her. "Let's find out."

With that, she lashed out at the powerful demon, Adam casually deflecting the blade with his own bone-like 'sword' before launching his own counter-attack, Buffy narrowly dodging the blade as he attempted to thrust it into her shoulder. Although the bone-weapon lacked the sharp edges of Buffy's sword, increasing her opportunities to strike at Adam- even if the blows she landed were no more than small scratches she was still doing _something _to the bastard-, the thing was still sturdy enough to possibly break some of _her _bones if it struck her the right way.

_Then again_, Buffy reflected, ducking under another attack as she glared at the figure before her, _this _does _make it interesting_…

It might just be her imagination, but she was fairly certain that the _last _time she'd fought Adam she'd had a bit more trouble staying ahead of him when she was on her own; maybe she'd become a bit faster since she'd last tangled with him (Whether through simple age or because of that spell Willow had done, she didn't know)…

Speed or not, Buffy couldn't help but wish that she'd thought to bring the scythe with her as she parried another blow; she'd left it behind at the New Council headquarters before leaving- she hadn't seen much point in bringing the most powerful weapon in their arsenal to investigate something that may have been merely a weird dream, no matter how convinced she'd been that it was real-, but it could have been _really _useful in this fight…

As Adam's spike nearly struck her in the leg, Buffy vaulted off to one side to evade the worst of the blow, inwardly chastising herself as she felt a faint trickle of blood coming down her left thigh; recriminations about what she _could _have done weren't going to help anything right now…

* * *

As PastBuffy leapt over the banister of the landing, the ground of the 'hall' before her (For lack of a better term; she wasn't sure if the room was actually a hall or if there was some other term for it she didn't know about) swiftly meeting her feet, a part of her was already wondering how things could have changed for her so rapidly.

Barely two days ago- by her standards, at least; for everyone else it was over six years ago- she'd been sitting in a bus, heading away from the town that had taken everything she ever really cared about away from her- her social life, her mother, her lover, even her friends- and now here she was, fighting side-by-side with _another _new Slayer- she'd barely had time to get used to Kendra, and now here she was fighting with a woman who had apparently become a Slayer _far _earlier than she should have- against an insane vampire while her own future self slugged it out with a massive robot/demon/human… _thing_… that she'd apparently already defeated once before and now had to take down again.

_Geez_… she mused to herself, as she and Kennedy automatically shifted into a similar combat stance as Drusilla grinned at them. _Just when I thought that I'd experienced the weirdest stuff that this Slayer gig could throw at me, I get _this _load of crap dumped on me?_

"Ah, the lost little Slayer!" Drusilla chuckled, looking briefly at Buffy before turning to look at Kennedy. "And the bad delusional little girl who thinks she can become the new light for the Wicked Witch of the West?"

"Shut up," Kennedy growled, clenching her fists as she stared grimly at Drusilla. "You don't know _what _you're talking about, so don't even _start_, got me?"

"But you're all so fun," Drusilla said, pouting slightly as she looked at Kennedy. "I didn't really have time to play with the chocolate Slayer before I claimed her; now that you're here-"

Drusilla never even got the chance to finish; a powerful kick from PastBuffy hit her in the side of the head mid-sentence, preventing her from continuing her speech and leaving her bleeding from her mouth as the temporally-relocated Slayer glared at her.

"You do _not _get to even _think _about Kendra like that!" PastBuffy said, glaring angrily at the insane vampire.

"But it's so much _fun_," Drusilla said, still sounding almost hurt as she looked at the young woman she'd last seen so many years ago. "It was the first time I ever-"

A kick to the back of Drusilla's head ended that line of speech before she could continue it, sending her crashing face-first into the wall opposite her as Kennedy glared at her.

"Yeah, why don't you just stop yakking on about how great you are and actually try and _prove _it, Miss Lecter?" Kennedy asked, looking scathing at Drusilla before she glanced over at PastBuffy. "Double-team?"

"Fine by me," PastBuffy replied, nodding briefly at Kennedy before she raised her arms in a combat stance, her eyes fixed on Drusilla intently. "Ready to lose _now_?"

Before Drusilla could respond, PastBuffy had lunged towards her, the female vampire barely managing to parry the enraged younger Slayer's blows as the temporally-relocated Slayer drew on all the pain and rage she still felt at the memory of staking the man she loved and witnessing the death of her sister-Slayer mere days/years ago…

Drusilla had killed someone close to PastBuffy.

As far as PastBuffy was concerned, this was going to end between them _no_w; Kennedy's presence- the other Slayer lashing out at Drusilla alongside her, the vampire before them fast enough to parry the assaults of both but too occupied with defence to effectively fight back- was just an added bonus to make things easier.

* * *

As Angelus's fist continued to strike Angel's face, the advantage having currently shifted to the demon after one of the many vampiric minions scored a lucky blow that distracted the soulled version at a crucial moment, Angel was finding it increasingly difficult to focus as pain filled his brain and the taste of his own blood filled his mouth; he didn't know what to do, he _had_ to think of something…!

That "something" came to Angel's mind just as Angelus drew his fist back for a blow that would have most likely broken Angel's jaw.

This was no time for screwing around; if he wanted to get out of here in time to stop their enemy accomplishing anything, it was time for one hell of a damaging blow.

Right before Angelus's fist would have made contact one last time, Angel flicked his wrist, activating the portable stake launcher he always kept stored there, and, before even Angelus could process what the sound had been, Angel subsequently stabbed the stake right into the side of his demon's neck.

In an eerily similar manner to what had happened when Angel first fought the Beast, Angelus gargled as trickles of blood left his neck. A small stream of the scarlet liquid spurted out of his mouth, staining his jacket as the pain caused him to lose his grip on his good self's neck. Angel held a smirk of his own as he gripped his evil self's wrist, prying it off his neck and crushing it with all his might; if Angelus's throat hadn't been practically destroyed, he'd probably have screamed.

Straightening his back, Angel grinned at the kneeling - and very much in pain –Angelus and, pulling his own fist back, grinned as his demon's eyes, for once the victim of pain rather than the person delivering it, stared back at him in shock and confusion.

"Who's the 'bitch' now, huh?" he inquired casually.

WHACK!

With that punch, Angelus spun like a top through the air before he collided with a nearby post with extreme force; a loud metal clang was ringed and Angel could have sworn he heard something crack.

He was half hoping that Angelus would be permanently out of the fight, but, after two-hundred-and-fifty- odd years, he knew that luck sometimes never stayed with him, like he had amazingly terrible karma. Angelus was still straining to get on his feet, but almost comically, he kept tripping on the post, disorienting his vision,

"_Damn_…" Angelus threatened in a hoarse whisper, his voice slowly returning to him with the removal of the stake as he constantly blinked, clutching at his head as though he could barely even see through the pain his injuries had caused, "You'll… regret… that…"

Angel only shook his head and turned the other way.

Right now, as Angelus was pretty much on the "penalty box" for a while- he knew from experience that an injury to the throat could put you down for some time-, he had to get back to his main objective.

As much as he might be enjoying the opportunity to have _another _actual fight with Angelus, this confrontation wasn't getting any of them anywhere; all they were doing with this battle was wasting time until their still-unknown main adversary could finish the spell that would bring the Senior Partners down to their plane of existence.

If somebody didn't managed to there in time to interrupt the Ritual, they were going to be facing the Apocalypse in an hour's time, all because _they _were too busy dealing with a bunch of random… well, 'musclemen' for lack of a better term; Adam, Dark Willow, and the assorted vampires were dangerous, but so long as they were contained in this area there wasn't really anything they could actually _do _to any innocent people.

As much as Angel hated the idea of leaving his worse half- along with two of history's most dangerous vampires, to say nothing of what Adam and Dark Willow could be capable of from the stories he'd heard- to cause further chaos, he had no other alternative; someone _had _to abandon _this _fight if they were going to win the war.

Quickly lashing out with a stake at his current opponent- one of many low-level minions that Drusilla or Angelus must have created; Dracula preferred to turn only those selected few-, Angel dived through the momentary clear area in the fight around him in the moments before the dust fully dissipated and his enemies could register the hole in their lines, practically diving through the door leading to the downward stairs that would take him to his cars…

"_Hold it_!" a voice yelled behind Angel.

Groaning, Angel turned around and wasn't surprised to see Spike standing at the top of the flight of the stairs, staring at his grandsire critically as he indicated the battle behind him; with only minions to deal with due to Dracula's current state, it evidently hadn't been that hard for Spike to spare the time to confront Angel without impacting on their allies' ability to hold their own, but it was also clear that their position wasn't sustainable.

"What the _sodding hell _are you doing?" Angel's grandchilde yelled at his grandsire, as he angrily walked down the stairs towards the other vampire. "The fight's _that _way, you know!"

"What do you think?" Angel said, indicating the battle below them. "We don't have the _time _to deal with this _and _stop the mastermind from casting his ritual, Spike. You _heard_ what Wesley said; once the Ritual's started, there's no way to stop it without the Senior Partners getting onto our plane anyway in some form or another. We've only got an hour at best to stop this from happening; if I don't move _now_, we'll never reach there in time-"

"And you're dumber than I ever _thought _you were if you think I'm going to let you do this alone!" Spike yelled, as he walked forward to glare directly at Angel, fists clenched at his sides as he and his grandsire attempted to stare each other down. "You stupid sod, we've got a serious problem going on down there, and you charging off on some probably kamikaze mission is _not _going to solve anything; you're taking _back-up_, or you're waiting until we can spare the forces!"

"It's our only _chance_, Spike!" Angel yelled back at him, walking rapidly up the stairs to stand face-to-face with his long-time rival/ally. "What _else _would you recommend; we just stay here and fight it out until we've dealt with our enemies? We just don't have the _time _to pull that off right now; with so many of the other side's forces committed to this attack, I _have _to do this!"

"But-" Spike began angrily, only to be interrupted by Angel, having finally reached a point where he couldn't spare any more time arguing, launched a rapid punch to the other vampire's face, sending Spike collapsing to the stairs. It wouldn't keep a vampire of Spike's age down for longer than a few minutes, but, right now, those few minutes were all Angel would need.

Looking down at the other vampire, Angel smiled slightly at he looked at the man who, in many ways, had been his greatest rival and his closest friend simultaneously.

He doubted they'd _ever_ learn to really get along with each other, and there would always be a part of him that resented the fact that Spike coped with getting his soul back so easily while Angel still sometimes struggled with what he'd 'gained' from the curse…

But, for all their differences, in his own way, Angel had come to regard Spike as a sort of brother.

And, right now, Spike was needed where he was at the moment more than Angel was; if nothing else, Spike deserved a chance to more fully explore what he'd become since he got his soul back.

"See you around," Angel said simply, nodding at the unconscious body of the peroxide vampire.

Then he turned around and hurried down the stairs towards the garage as rapidly as he could, his eyes narrowed in resolve as he stared ahead of himself, barely even registering the faint sound of footsteps behind him; whoever it was didn't sound like one of the more experienced combatants out there, so if they meant him harm he should be able to handle them well enough if they caught up with him and things turned ugly.

If he hurried, and the traffic between him and his destination was good, he could probably make it to the building where their current foe would perform the ritual in about twenty minutes.

If the traffic was _bad_, it might take him twice that, but he could still conceivably make it in time before the ritual was completed.

If he was delayed much longer…

Well, he'd rather not consider that; the odds against him were high enough as it was.


	21. True Faces

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Angel, or any associated characters; I just own this plot, Heure, and Brindil. I don't own Duana; he's a creation of Jaclyn Blackrose.

Feedback: Naturally

AN: Not TOO sure about this chapter, but it gets the job done; I have higher hopes about the next one…

Back from the Past

As he drove up to the building where their enemy would perform the ritual that was soon to take place- he was definitely going to have to hurry; he was definitely starting to get a feel that something _very _strange was going on right now, and the time he'd wasted grabbing some weapons from the armoury had been more than enough delay for him-, Angel barely even waited for the car's engine to stop before he'd leapt out of the car into the shadow of the building- the sun was still high in the sky, even if the angle favoured him at the moment-, kicked down the door in front of him and charged into the building, the sword he'd picked up earlier drawn as a small group of vampires- evidently minions; judging by their evident uncertainty at the weapons they held they couldn't have been turned more than a few months ago- turned to look at him in shock.

Angel didn't give them the chance to get over their initial surprise; swinging his sword, he managed to decapitate two vampires with one blow before the other three could even move to attack him, swiftly shifting into a combat stance as the other three vampires drew the swords hanging by their sides. Angel only vaguely had time to note that the swords were held in a decidedly amateurish fashion- evidently the vampires before him were only newly-turned minions rather than anything else- before all three of them charged at him; only their inexperience and his own skill allowed him to hold them back from landing a blow that could have killed him, halting two blades with his sword and deflecting the third with a rapid parrying motion before he stepped back a few crucial feet.

With the narrowness of the corridor making it difficult to surround him- one of them could probably get past him easily enough, but he would almost certainly have killed one of the two remaining in front of him before the guy could get into position to attack-, all the opposing vampires could do was charge Angel all at once, Angel swiftly backing out of the corridor towards the main door to give himself more space to manoeuvre.

As soon as he was outside, the vampires seemingly threw caution aside and tried to charge him all at once, only for Angel to grab the first one by the jacket and hurl him into the sunlight, the vampire flying over the roof of another car parked in front of his and subsequently disintegrating in the sunlight. Taking advantage of his momentary distraction, the other two vampires swiftly moved to surround Angel, but before he could decide which one to attack first, one of them collapsed into dust from a stake in the heart from a figure behind them, leaving Angel free to decapitate the last one before he could recover his wits.

It was only when Angel turned to look at the person who'd just staked the vampire that he realised who the new arrival was.

"_Harmony_?" he said, staring incredulously at his vampiric secretary as she stood where the vampire had been only moments ago, a stake in her hand as she stared in a slightly bemused manner at the pile of dust that she'd just taken out (Not that Angel could blame her; as far as he knew, this was only the second time that Harmony had actually won a fight). "What are _you _doing here?"

"Uh… helping you?" Harmony replied, indicating the newly-arrived car Angel had noticed earlier with an uncertain wave; now that Angel was looking, it seemed to be another one of the cars he kept at the office, but given how many he had there he couldn't be certain. "I mean, I know I'm not meant to use company cars- and I'm not that much of a fighter either-, but I figured that there were too many vampires back _there_-along with too many people I've tried to kill in the past- to be sure somebody wouldn't end up staking me by accident, so when I saw you leaving and everyone else busy…"

She shrugged helplessly. "Well… I thought you could use the back-up?"

For a moment, Angel could only stare silently back at her, before he finally gave her a brief nod.

He had to admit, even if their as-yet-unknown enemy was the only person here, he wouldn't mind some help in taking the guy out…

"Stay alert, stay behind me, and say _nothing_," he said simply. "Clear?"

"As rain, boss," Harmony replied, nodding back at him with a slight smile.

"Good," Angel said, nodding back at her as he raised his sword (He didn't bother offering Harmony anything; she had little to no experience with weapons, so giving her one would only be an invitation for trouble, but that incident with the Vinji/Sahrvin conference had shown that she could at least do some damage with her bare hands if she had to). "Let's go."

With that, he turned around and hurried back into the building, Harmony close behind him as the two of them hurried up the stairs that PastBuffy had described as leading to the main chamber in this place; according to Angel's watch, they only had a matter of minutes left before the planetary alignment PastBuffy had mentioned earlier took place…

As he ran along the corridor towards the room where the man who had been the closest thing to a father Buffy had ever had since he'd met her had met his end- Angel had only seen Hank Summers briefly when he'd watched Buffy back in Los Angeles before her mother's divorce, and barely counted the man as _any _kind of father after the lack of attention he'd paid to her since she'd come to Sunnydale-, Angel wasn't sure what he was hoping to find; Giles might deserve a decent burial, but did he _really _have time to waste getting rid of the body-?

Then he kicked the door of the room open, only for his and Harmony's eyes to widen in shock at the sight before them.

"_Angelus_?" Angel yelled, looking incredulously at the vampire standing in the room before them.

"Yep," Angelus replied, a smirk evident on his face as he indicated the corners of the room around them. "Plus, of course, I have a few friends."

As Angel turned to look in the direction that his alter ego had indicated, his blood ran cold- if it was even _possible _for it to get colder, given his undead status- at the sight of the rest of the room's inhabitants advancing towards him and Harmony.

They were all _here_.

Angelus, Dracula, Drusilla, Adam, Dark Willow…

All five of the old enemies that they'd last seen fighting their friends, allies, and co-workers (Primarily co-workers in Harmony's case) were _here_.

"Oh my God…" Harmony whispered, staring in shock at the group before them, her thoughts clearly following the same tangent as Angel's; since it was doubtful that their allies back at Wolfram & Hart had been defeated _this _quickly, the only alternative explanation for their presence here that Angel could think of was that there were somehow two of the enemies in question. "H… _how_…?"

"That would be me," another voice said, the speaker walking out of another corner of the room to reveal himself as a tall, thin figure with skin a somewhat rough texture that reminded the two vampires of tree bark, a smirk on his face revealing yellowed teeth. "I am Brindil; I understand that you have killed some of my creations after I temporally relocated them to take the place of their templates?"

Angel blinked in confusion for a moment, until an explanation for the man's statement occurred to him.

_Templates_…

What the Beast had said about them- or rather, Angelus- having killed his _clone _during their fight with him…

The fact that reality didn't seem to have been affected by Caleb and the Beast dying _here _when they'd already been killed in the past (Hell, he still _remembered _seeing the Beast blow up- even if it was Angelus who actually _witnessed _it- and watching Caleb fall apart in a very literal sense, even after seeing them die _here_)…

It all made sense.

"You… create clones?" he said, looking uncertainly at the robed demon before him; he knew that some demons could have particularly unusual powers, but he'd never encountered anything quite like this. "And you sent the _clones _back to die in the past at the times that we _remember _having killed the originals… while drawing the originals _here_ to fight for you?"

"I prefer to think of them as homunculi- they're only imperfect physical constructs, really-, and my colleague Heure- I understand you met him earlier?- was responsible for drawing them to this point in time, but essentially you are correct in your assessment of the situation, yes," Brindil explained, smiling slightly at Angel in a smug manner that reminded Angel unnervingly of Jasmine, as though all he was doing was for your own good in the end and you were somehow stupid for not seeing that. "They possess all the strength and memories of the originals so long as I have a sample of the template available when I am creating them- the rituals can be rather complicated even for my people; we tend to keep our skills in this area rather quiet-, but I cannot make anything _permanent_-"

"Uh… is that why the duplicates were sent after us at Wolfram & Hart while you kept these guys here?" Harmony asked, indicating the group of smug-looking demons around them. "All you needed there was something to… distract us… while keeping your big guys here?"

"You aren't as stupid as you appear, Miss Kendall," Brindil said, smiling briefly at her before he indicated another corner. "Of course, you are _slightly _incorrect; actually, _he _is the one who needed someone to distract you, and I am merely a member of his army in his great work to restore the true nature of the world."

Turning to look at the figure in question- Brindil's tone as he spoke didn't sound like he'd be the kind of person that it would be wise to try and start an argument with-, Angel and Harmony's eyes fell on the figure standing there. The figure was a tall man, reaching almost seven feet in height, with long hair that almost appeared to be dark blue in colour, dressed in a long red robe and with a staff in one hand. Surprisingly enough, he actually looked fairly human underneath the robe; only the faint golden gleam in his eyes, combined with the way his skin seemed to be flickering slightly as though something was trying to get out of it, gave away that there was more to him than being human.

"Greetings," the figure said, walking forward slightly to stand in the sunlight with a slight smile. "A pleasure to meet you, Angel; Angelus has already given me some… interesting information about your character, but your history itself merited my interest long ago."

"And you are?" Angel asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked at the figure before them.

"Oh, how… impolite… of me," the man replied, nodding slightly at Angel in acknowledgement of the query, glancing briefly at a watch on his wrist before looking back at the vampire. "I am Duana; actually, I've been… expecting this meeting for some time."

* * *

As she ducked under another attempted blow from Adam, Buffy couldn't help but wish they'd had more time to prepare for this particular fight; it might have been a risky manoeuvre, but right now that 'enjoining spell' they'd used against this whacko the first time round would have come in _very _useful…

As Adam's blade narrowly skimmed past her arm once again, Buffy ducked to the side, briefly registering her past self rapidly dodging around some blows from Drusilla- that vampire could move _fast_; she'd never really seen the woman in action before, with Spike or Angelus commonly handling the physical side of any confrontations she'd had with their insane paramour- before she followed up Adam's assault by slashing down with her sword at the wires that Angel had torn out of Adam's arm earlier; the worst of the damage had been fixed, but there were still a couple of cracks that she could use to strike back…

A brief grunt of pain prompted Buffy to glance over in another direction, but she only had time to briefly process the sight of Xander being pinned down by one of the vampire minions before Angel's friend Gunn thrust a stake through the heart of the vampire that was about to bite his neck, giving Xander just enough room to stake another vampire close to him; he might have been getting used to it, but Xander's lack of depth perception and limited left-side vision could still be a handicap when the situation got this rough…

The sound of Adam's bladed arm whistling towards her prompted Buffy to rapidly duck to the side before she could take that train of thought any further, taking a brief moment to take in the rest of the fights currently taking place around her- Willow exchanging blasts with Dark Willow while Spike used a sword he'd acquired at some point to fight off Dracula and Angelus simultaneously (Angel must be busy somewhere else), each of her allies looking tired but still going strong- before she turned back to Adam and snatched up a nearby dagger, plunging it into his human eye while moving at a speed that she could never have achieved during her first confrontation with the monstrous 'triborg' before her.

As Adam staggered back, roaring in pain as he clutched at his now-bleeding eye- evidently the weapon hadn't gone far enough to do any serious damage to his brain-, Buffy kicked out at his chest once again, sending her foe stumbling backwards just in time to hit Drusilla as Kennedy and her past self knocked the insane vampire off-balance, the two hitting the ground just as the two Buffies moved into position above their enemies…

Who, with no apparent warning, suddenly collapsed into two large piles of what looked like green dust, the sight being accompanied by a sudden drop in the noise volume around the room. Looking up, Buffy saw Willow and Spike looking incredulously at three similar piles of dust that appeared to be located where Dracula, Dark Willow and Angelus had been only moments ago, leaving the other members of the group to quickly eliminate the remaining vampire minions; judging by the incredulous expressions on their faces, what had just taken place had been as unexpected for the vampires as it had been for their opponents.

"What the _Hell_…?" Kennedy muttered, looking incredulously at the pile that had been Drusilla mere moments ago only to revert without any sign of a transitionary phase to allow for her latest collapse, before looking over at the others. "What just _happened_?"

"I don't know…" Willow muttered, walking over and raising one hand over the nearest pile- based on the location it looked like the pile that had originally been Dracula, Buffy noted-, muttering a couple of incantations under her breath before she looked up in horror. "Oh no…"

"What?" Buffy asked, looking uncertainly at Willow. "What is it?"

"These people…" Willow said, her face almost as pale as her vampire doppelganger's had been all those long years ago as she looked up at the world's oldest living Slayer. "They're… they're not real."

Buffy blinked.

"Huh?" she said. "What are you talking about; I've got bruises which make it pretty clear that they _were _here-"

"I mean, they were made by somebody who had _access _to the originals, so time-travel's probably still involved in Caleb, Adam and that 'Beast' thing being here- the samples needed to make these things would only be fresh if they were acquired at the _moment _of death in an absolute worst-case scenario, and I can't see someone being this patient if they had access to this kind of strength since Adam's death at least-, but what we were just fighting here were… well, to put it simply, _clones_," Willow said, looking around at her allies while trying to restrain the fear she felt at what she was thinking. "We've been fighting the clones _here_, which means that the originals are somewhere else…"

"Probably providing security for that sodding ritual the poof went off to try and strop…" Spike muttered, grimly flexing his shoulders as he wiped some blood out of his eye from a cut on his forehead near his old scar.

Buffy's eyes widened in horror.

"_WHAT_?!" she yelled, turning to look incredulously at the only vampire remaining in the room. "Angel went there _alone_?!"

"He figured that we had enough of a grasp on things at this end to keep everything busy until he could get there; how was anyone meant to know the 'real' bad guys weren't here-?" Spike began.

"_We have to go_!" Fred yelled, looking desperately around at the rest of the group before hurrying towards the stairs that led to the main exit- she was currently standing closest to the stairs in question- without bothering to check if anybody was behind her, the two Buffies and Spike not even bothering to exchange glances with each other before they began to run after the physicist, their assorted allies close behind them.

None of them even needed to speak; the thoughts currently running through their heads were obvious.

After all the time they'd wasted fighting duplicates of some of their most powerful enemies, they now had very little time to reach a location where a potentially dangerous ritual was being performed, and the only person available to stop it was a single vampire up against at least five of their most powerful enemies without any back-up…

_Please let him be all right_… PastBuffy thought as she ran towards the garage, already terrified at the thought of what could be waiting for her at the other end. _I only just got him back… I _can't _lose him again…_


	22. The Vampire's Sacrifice

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Angel, or any associated characters; I just own this plot, Heure, and Brindil. I don't own Duana; he's a creation of Jaclyn Blackrose.

Feedback: Naturally

Back from the Past

"Duana, huh?" Angel said, tensing in preparation for whatever the man before him might be planning to do, briefly noting Harmony attempting to mimic his combat stance out of the corner of his eye- she might not be able to do much, but any assistance in this crisis couldn't be overlooked- as further vampires began to emerge from the shadows in the corners of the room; he vaguely thought he saw a couple of familiar faces, but if they were familiar it wasn't because they were anyone he'd sired or known before he regained his soul, so he dismissed it as unimportant at the moment. "And… what's your stake in all this?"

"What else?" Duana replied, smirking as he looked at Angel. "Nothing more or less than the power and prestige that will come from serving as the vessel through which the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart shall come into this realm."

Angel allowed himself a momentary blink of surprise.

That tone had sounded a lot more… reverential than most demons he'd encountered; even those who _knew _about Wolfram & Hart's true agendas and the forces behind them either tended not to think about the 'Senior Partners' that much or only paid them as much allegiance as was necessary to further their own goals…

"And… that's it?" he said, looking suspiciously at Brindil. "I mean, after all the effort you've gone through to get to this point-"

"You thought that I would seek the power and authority that would come from triggering the apocalypse myself?" Duana asked, smiling slightly at Angel. "An assessment not without basis, I freely admit, but one that I acknowledge is beyond my abilities; while I have little doubt that I could concoct a plan to accomplish that goal with little real bother, I lack the ability to wield the magickal energy that would be necessary to put such a plan into action on my own."

"Hence all the back-up, huh?" Angel said, indicating the group around him with a dismissive wave of his hand, trying not to show how much their presence unnerved him; the sight of Angelus standing over there alone was something he _really _didn't want to think about too much. "They do the hard work while you… what?"

"Well, that's had to change over time, really," Duana said, shrugging slightly. "When I originally brought my first few allies together- including Count Dracula and Miss Drusilla, of course-, our intention was to gather the necessary energy by sacrificing the younger version of Miss Summers that I believe you and your allies rescued- the consequences of something as drastic as killing Miss Summers at her most vulnerably would have been particularly fascinating to witness even without the fact that the temporal stress generated by such an anomaly were perfect for our goals-, but when that failed-"

"Hold on; 'temporal stress'?" Angel repeated, raising one hand as he glared at the man before him, his mind racing as he tried to consider the possible implications of that statement; science was more Fred's field than his, but he'd spent enough time with her that he thought he could at least come up with a theory about what Duana was talking about, even if the implications made him feel almost physically sick. "You mean… you were going to change _history_… just to get the energy you needed?"

"A bit extreme, I admit, but with my original target date the effects would have been relatively minor regarding what _events _were altered," Duana said, a casual smile on his face as he looked at the vampire. "If anything, Miss Summers's death might have made things better for you and your allies; after all, with Miss Summers gone at the time of her Cruciamentum, Miss Lehane could have easily stepped into the role of the Slayer on a full-time basis without ever going over to work with the Mayor, you would probably have moved to Los Angeles a few months earlier without anything keeping you there, the First Evil may not even have been given the opportunity to strike out like it attempted to do so last year…"

He shrugged. "The faces in some situations and the fates of a couple of players might have been altered slightly- in particular the fate of that 'Mr Finn' I've heard about who was employed by the 'Initiative' that created my associate here-" here Duana indicated Adam with a wave of his hand as he continued, "-I can't see Miss Lehane being that interested in someone like _him_, after all-, but I felt confident that history wouldn't have ended with a change like that…"

"And then you dragged _them_into the present and replaced them with clones?" Angel countered, indicating Adam. "Why go to that much effort for _them_?"

"Simply put, observation of you and the younger Miss Summers revealed to me that my theories about Time might not have been as… rigid… as I believed," Duana replied, a momentary uncertainty on his face before he continued. "Given the present Miss Summers's evident knowledge of the events that are happening to her past self, it would appear that Time is more adaptable to such events than I had previously anticipated, and any attempts to make larger changes like I originally planned would be fundamentally doomed by their very nature; with that in mind, I concluded that, rather than gather the temporal energy necessary by making one _large _change to history, I would instead make multiple small ones…"

"And so you brought Adam, Caleb and the Beast here while leaving their duplicates in the past?" Angel asked, beginning to follow Duana's reasoning.

"Among a few minor vampires you and your allies have fought over the years, of course; the three villains I brought here were the only… 'Big Bads', as I believe your friends call them… that I could find in your assorted histories whom I could be fairly sure would work with me- given the correct incentive, naturally- while still being a significant threat to you," Duana explained. "The vampires were relatively minor, I admit, but they got the job done; after that, the fine details of how the temporal stress is created don't matter so long as my final goal is accomplished."

"And… what _is _that?" Harmony asked, apparently tired of standing on the side in silence.

"Why, what else?" Duana replied, smiling smugly over at her. "To create a sufficient disruption in the dimension barriers to allow the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart to enter this plane of existence and claim it for themselves."

Angel blinked.

"Hold on; what's all this about a 'disruption in the dimensional barriers'?" he repeated, looking sceptically at Duana. "Wesley mentioned something about a 'Ritual of Transference' that you could use to bring the Partners here…"

"Your Watcher friend is well-informed, even if his information is fundamentally inaccurate," Duana said, nodding briefly at Angel. "There _is _an alignment approaching- in the next few minutes, actually- which will permit the ritual that you mentioned to be used to summon the Senior Partners to this plane, but it requires more than just the alignment to be truly effective; it requires the dimensional barriers that normally keep beings such as the Partners from entering this world in their full glory to be weakened and strained to such a point that the 'membrane'- for lack of a better term- keeping them out of this dimension is stretched very… thin, I suppose is the best description."

"And… you accomplished this by _replacing _our old enemies in the past with these 'duplicates' of yours?" Angel asked. "Why bother using the duplicates?"

"Because, based on the example of your Miss Summers, I have concluded that history is more complex than I had initially assumed," Duana explained. "If it was a simple matter to change history, we should be noticing some effects from having Miss Summers's past self here in the first place- consequences from her not being where she was, no matter how minor, should have triggered some kind of change that we would have seen in the present-; the fact that things have gone on for as long as they have, with the only apparent change being the memories of the present version adjusting to include her past self's view of events, suggests that the temporal universe is a fundamentally self-healing system that resists attempts to alter pre-established events…"

"You mean… the _universe _is working to keep things the way they were?" Harmony asked in confusion.

"Essentially, your statement is correct, Miss Kendall," Duana replied with a nod. "Oh, it might be _possible _to change history in a more direct manner- I _have _studied records of Anyanka's initial arrival in Sunnydale and Miss Chase's first direct meeting with that 'Skip' individual, after all; it's surprising what you can learn with the right contacts-, but in those cases the changes were primarily caused by entities who naturally exist outside what we perceive as reality- the one known as 'Jasmine' was primarily responsible for Skip's change, and even Anyanka's powers primarily come from D'Hoffryn rather than Anyanka herself-; it's a bit harder to change history when you're already experiencing it from the 'inside', for lack of a better term. But simply extracting a few people here and there and replacing them with short-lived copies that you know aren't going to make that much of an impact on how things went on their own because the originals were going to die anyway?"

He shrugged. "That's a lot simpler, when you get down to it; the nature of the templates even means that people won't have to worry about cleaning up the bodies like they might have done for the originals because they'll collapse on their own later on anyway…"

"While still making _some _changes to history because they weren't replaced by their clones _before_ you changed things, right?" Angel said, nodding in understanding. "By gathering all those people from our pasts together and replacing them back _then_, you create enough small temporal distortions to make _some _kind of effect on the dimensional barriers you want to breach without actually _changing _anything that's already happened…"

"Precisely," Duana replied, smiling as he spread his arms out, a satisfied smirk on his face. "In a matter of moments, the ritual shall begin, and I shall become the template for the bodies that the Senior Partners will use to gain access to this dimension, granting me the power and authority of one of their own while nevertheless leaving me intact as _me_-"

"As opposed to the usual power-enhancing rituals which would turn you into a host for something else at the cost of your life and individuality, right?" Angel said, shaking his head briefly before he looked around at the rest of the people in the room. "And when the Partners _do _come here, you'll all be… what? Their lieutenants?"

"Pretty much," Angelus replied, shrugging slightly as he smirked at his ensouled counterpart. "What can I say? Position has its perks-"

"And you think they don't know that you'll be planning how to stab them in the backs just as well as I do?" Angel asked, staring sceptically at his other self as the rest of the group simply stood around nonchalantly. "And don't even _think _about denying that you're planning _something_; I know you, remember?"

"Oh, we all know that Angelus has his little schemes, Angel," Duana said, prompting Angel to turn around to see the demon smiling at him as he walked into the centre of the circle. "The only tricky thing- and it's not _that _difficult, really- is setting things up so that what's best for him is what's best for all of us… or, at least, makes it just that _bit _more difficult to get what he wants if we're dead."

"What can I say?" Angelus said, shrugging nonchalantly at Angel. "I'm a patient guy; I'll be fine with waiting a while to get what I want-"

"Funny thing about that," Angel said, raising his sword and shifting back into a combat stance even as he spoke. "I just ran out of patience myself."

With that, he lunged towards his soulless self- the ritual would take a few minutes to complete according to Wesley's research; it would be best to deal with the minions to at least make sure they couldn't stop him interfering before he tried anything himself-, Angelus only just managing to raise a sword that he must have been keeping hidden under his coat to counter the blow. Before Angelus could do much more than react to the first attack, Angel had launched into a virtual whirlwind of destruction, spinning the sword around to decapitate a couple of the other vampires standing around him- he vaguely recognised one of the Gorch brothers from that incident with the demon eggs as his sword passed through the other vampire's neck- before it plunged through Dracula's heart, turning the vampire lord into dust for a crucial few moments as he turned to face Adam.

The hybrid had only just begun to raise his gun-wielding arm to target Angel when Harmony- momentarily forgotten in favour of the more immediately threat of Angel- picked up a mace from where one of the vampires Angel had just killed had dropped it, bringing it down on the gun with such force that the barrel was dented and Adam was left screaming in pain, the damage Harmony had caused- admittedly more by luck than design- having struck his bone as well as the gun. Before Adam could retaliate, Harmony desperately swung the mace- clearly unable to get a good grip on the weapon; vampiric strength could only take you so far- to strike the tri-borg's face, sending Adam reeling backwards into a couple of the nearest vampires.

* * *

"OH YEAH!" Harmony yelled, grinning broadly at the sight of the momentarily-dazed monster; after so long always losing to the Slayer, it felt _really _good to be able to take it out on somebody else, especially someone who'd given even_ Buffy _a hard time (She'd heard a bit about Adam from Spike before his sire had shown up again)…

Then she turned around to see Angel almost frantically duelling- he looked as in control as he always did, but he was definitely moving more rapidly than she'd ever seen him move in a fight before- with his other self while that 'Duana' guy began to chant from the centre of the room, and she re-evaluated her original thoughts; she might not fully understand all that stuff about temporal stresses, but she'd gathered enough to know that she did _not _want it to be finished.

Which meant that, right now, her best chance of survival- seeing as how she doubted these 'Senior Partners' would be interested in keeping her around if they succeeded in whatever they were trying to do- was to help Angel stop his immediate opponents so that he could focus on Duana.

As that female vampire she recognised as Drusilla began to move towards Angel, and the dust-pile that was apparently Dracula began to pull itself back together, Harmony sprang into action; grabbing an axe someone had dropped earlier- the mace she'd been using was getting a bit heavy for her-, she lunged forward, a wild swing catching Dracula in the back before he could fully reform sending him falling to the ground, that same swing striking Drusilla in the side just under her arm.

Even as Drusilla screamed in pain and slashed out at Harmony's face- the younger vampire only just managing to duck to the side and avoid a nail that could have taken her eye out-, Harmony ignored the blood now staining her cheek in favour of continuing her original goal, lunging towards Angelus just as he knocked Angel- the two were at least wearing different shirts- down with a quick kick to the chest-

Only to suddenly be cut short as Angelus turned around and impaled Harmony in the chest with his sword, smirking nonchalantly even as Harmony opened her mouth to scream at the feel of the cold steel penetrating her heart.

"Tough break, Harm," Angelus said dismissively. "I guess you-"

The last thing Harmony saw before she collapsed into dust was the sight of Angelus's head leaving his shoulders, Angel looking at her with a momentarily-registering apology on his face as he looked at her…

* * *

Angel didn't have time to spare for mourning as Harmony collapsed into dust, just a couple of inches away from his other self's remains; with Drusilla, Dracula and Adam currently down for the count, and Dark Willow looking mockingly at him from off to the side- clearly confident that nothing he could do to her would actually damage her-, there would never be a better chance to stop Duana than there was now.

From what he could see, Duana was making good progress through the chanting of the Ritual of Transference- from what Wesley had told him about it the ritual actually didn't involve that much chanting, simply relying on the power of the alignment and the Partners themselves in order to do most of the work while the spell simply opened the door, and Duana sounded like he was nearing the end of it anyway-, which somewhat limited his opportunities to stop it, particularly since he didn't know what cutting the ritual off before it was concluded would do for any of the participants involved anyway.

However, based on something Wesley had mentioned, Angel _did _have one plan that might get the job done…

As soon as Duana closed his mouth, looking at Angel with a mocking smile that only those who believe they've already won can possess, Angel seized his chance; shifting into his 'vamp face', he lunged for Duana, seized the demon's head, and rapidly twisted the head around almost a complete 180 degrees, breaking his neck and sending his body collapsing to the ground.

For a moment, nothing happened, Angel simply looking at Duana's body in satisfaction while the rest of the people in the room looked uncertainly at him- with Angelus dead and Adam, Dracula and Drusilla temporarily incapacitated, Dark Willow was the strongest combatant left standing and she was definitely waiting for something to happen-, only for Angel to suddenly throw his head back and scream as a burst of brilliant light emerged from his body, surrounding his head and hands as it came from his coat. As the surrounding demons watching the energy finally solidified into three vaguely-formed bodies, each of them looking slightly like a hazily-developed photograph of Angel but growing more distinct and less identical with every moment.

As the energy ceased to emit from Angel's body, he fell to the floor, gasping for breath as he looked at the still-immobile trinity around him, his eyes narrowing as he allowed himself a brief smile.

_Perfect_…

Just as Wesley had said would happen, with Duana's death taking place _moments _after he'd completed the Ritual of Transference, the Partners had shifted their focus to make _him _the host body on which they'd base their own bodies given his physical proximity to Duana.

In other words, for the next few moments, the Senior Partners' still-forming bodies would have all the physical limitations of vampires.

Angel didn't hesitate; reaching under his coat, he drew the guns that he'd acquired from the Wolfram & Hart armoury before leaving the building, fired a quick burst at Dark Willow- Willow's evil double was too stunned to throw up more than a brief shield before the bullets struck her, sending her falling to the ground clutching her bleeding arm.

After seeing and hearing stories about Willow's powers nowadays, Angel wasn't going to fool himself into thinking that the bullets were going to buy him anything more than seconds in dealing with her other half, but right now seconds was all he needed. Raising the guns upwards to point at the glass ceiling above him, the sun still blazing down through the tinted glass, Angel gave a grim smile as he looked at the still-forming Senior Partners around him.

This would certainly kill him, but if he did it fast enough, _all _of the Partners would be wiped out before the Ritual should 'shift' their still-forming bodies to a template capable of surviving the sunlight (Particularly since Dark Willow and Adam were the only such candidates in the immediate vicinity; Angel had a feeling their injuries might make the Partners uncertain about duplicating their bodies even if they could control the process).

"This ends now," he said simply.

With that, he pulled the gun's triggers, sending a spree of bullets hurtling towards the ceiling, the glass breaking and shattering even as Angel continued to fire, right up to the moment when the sunlight touched his fingertips…

Then, as the light reached his upturned face, blinding him with its renewed intensity, he heard something speak in his head, in a voice that he hadn't heard for almost six years, even since he'd killed the speaker back when he'd lost his soul…

_**I forgive you**_**.**


	23. The Last Loose End

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Angel, or any associated characters; I just own this plot, Heure, and Brindil. I don't own Duana; he's a creation of Jaclyn Blackrose.

Feedback: Naturally

AN: And here we are with the last chapter; not sure about it, but I think it gets the job done

Back from the Past

Whenever she looked back at these events in her later years, Buffy could never be certain if she actually saw what happened or if she merely sensed it; her past self's memories agreed with her that she definitely sensed _something _take place that should never have happened before, and Willow admitted that she had caught a glimpse of something later on, but added that it was most likely due to her own natural awareness of magic…

In the end, what they'd sensed or seen didn't matter; what was important was that, even as Buffy and the others reached the building where the Ritual of Transference was meant to take place- Angel's car still parked outside the building, which at least confirmed that they'd been right about what he was trying to do-, every member of the group who possessed any innate supernatural power of their own, ranging from the Slayers' strength to Lorne's empathy, felt _something _briefly hit them with such chilling force that they were all left reeling from the darkness of what they'd just come in contact with- many of them even swearing afterwards that they'd _seen _the energy coming for them before it made contact-, only for the feeling to pass away almost as suddenly as it had originally came.

"Was that…?" Buffy asked, turning to look apprehensively at Willow.

"The release of energy caused when something really powerful and really evil comes into this plane before something really… _bad _happens to them?" Willow asked, shrugging slightly as she looked at Buffy. "No idea, sorry; that kind of thing isn't something I've really experienced that much…"

"_MOVE_!" the younger Buffy yelled, practically leaping out of her car behind Buffy's own and hurrying into the building, the anguish on her face telling Buffy what her younger self thought she might find more clearly than if she'd delivered a monologue on the subject (And that was _without _access to her past self's memories of this moment; the rate at which she was witnessing her younger self's view of events seemed to have slowed down ever since they met…).

Shaking her thoughts about the memory issue aside, Buffy dived out of her car and ran after her younger self, hurrying up the stairs with only the barest glances at the piles of ash at their feet that could only be recently-staked vampires; she wasn't concerned about minions right now, what she _was _concerned about was-

As soon as she tore through the last door between her and the room that her past self had described to them previously, Buffy's eyes widened incredulously at the sight before her.

It wasn't the burned and damaged walls that drew her attention- judging by the energy she'd 'sensed' earlier, she would have been surprised if there'd been _no _damage in the room-, and with that in mind, the mangled bodies lying in two corners that looked like they had been Adam and Dark Willow in life- the dark hair of one and the mechanical arm of another were suggestive of their identities, if nothing else- were only to be expected.

The thing that she almost couldn't believe was the sight of Angel, standing alone and apparently unharmed in the middle of the room, piles of dust all around him, looking at the door with a slightly stunned smile, as though he was unable to believe what had just taken place.

It was only after a few seconds of staring at him that Buffy realised the reason why she was so stunned at what she was seeing; the glass roof above Angel- the glass roof with the tinted glass that was meant to _protect vampires from the sunlight_- had been completely shattered for some reason, leaving Angel standing in the area that had once been protected by the glass, _completely exposed to the sun's rays_…

And he wasn't bursting into flames.

God, he didn't even seem to be _singed_…

"A… Angel?" a voice said from off to Buffy's right; glancing over, Buffy wasn't surprised to see her past self standing there, staring incredulously at the vampire before her. "What… what…?"

* * *

Looking back at the younger version of the woman he loved, Angel smiled slightly at her.

"I'm human," he said simply.

_I'm human_…

God, he'd thought those words were good when he'd become human during that Day that only he remembered… but to say them now, with the fulfilment of the Shanshu prophecy, knowing what they meant, after hearing Jenny Calendar confirm that he had been forgiven for his past (He _definitely_ hadn't been expecting that last part)…

He'd gone in to stop the Partners, fully expecting not to survive, and the Powers had gone and granted him his greatest wish, finally confirming his redemption at long last.

He was human, the Senior Partners were dead, Buffy was with him...

It really wasa great day to be alive… particularly since it marked the first day that Angel had been _really _alive for over two centuries (Not counting the Day That Never Was as that technically hadn't happened for anyone but him)...

"You're… you're _human_?" another voice said; shifting his gaze, Angel smiled slightly at the sight of Fred standing slightly behind Buffy's left side, her gaze demonstrating her own awe as Gunn and Wesley stood behind her with equally stunned expressions.

"Yep," Angel confirmed, his grin still dominating his face as he held his hands out in front of himself, flexing his fingers at the sight of his hands still out in the sunlight without any sign of flames or any trace of pain; he vaguely registered Spike looking at him in stunned silence and frustration at this latest turn of events, but decided not to bother too much about that particular issue and focus more on the present unexpected situation. "Looks like killing the Partners was enough to earn my Shanshu; after setting things up so that _I _became the 'host' for the Ritual of Transference, I shot the glass out of the roof-"

"And, with the Partners now inhabiting _vampire _bodies because they were now basing their bodies on _you_, the sunlight would have automatically destroyed them…" Wesley said, his voice low as he processed the implications of Angel's actions. "Of _course_… the resulting energy released at the demise of such powerful beings would have been… well, dangerous is barely an adequate word; Angel probably only survived because he was located at ground zero and the explosive blasts were focused outwards…"

Further speculation on the part of Angel's survival was cut off when PastBuffy suddenly ran forward and jumped into Angel's arms, wrapping her legs around him and grabbing the back of his head before forcing his lips against hers in a desperate, passionate kiss, tears streaming down her face as she sobbed for joy at this latest turn of events; evidently, she, at least, was more concerned with the fact of Angel's survival than the how of it.

Angel didn't even care in that moment about how this display of affection might be affecting the Buffy of the present; all that mattered to him right now was reassuring this younger, more vulnerable version of the woman he loved that he was here, that he was real, that he _hadn't _died on her again...

Then the sound of movement behind him caught his ears- evidently not all of his vampiric abilities had left him with his new human status-, prompting him to pull away from PastBuffy as he turned around, his eyes automatically falling onto the red-scaled, red-clad form of Heure. The demon had apparently just departed a room that looked like a small storage area of some kind at one end of the hall- most likely the place where Duana had kept supplies for any rituals he might need to perform- and was now heading for a nearby door at the other end of the room from the main entrance, most likely leading to a secret exit of some sort.

"_There _you are," Angel said, his arms grimly folded as he stared pointedly at the demon whose ritual had started this whole mess in the first place.

"Oh… hello there," Heure said, waving an awkward hand at the group before him "Well... seeing as how Duana's dead and the rest of my... associates... have joined him in that status, I see no reason to remain; I'll just be off-"

"Hold it," Willow said, raising one hand to halt the time-manipulating demon in his tracks mid-step. "You _caused _this by bringing Buffy here in the first place..."

"Look, I was just following orders; all I _did _was-" Heure began.

"We _know _what you did," Angel said, walking forward to stand directly opposite the currently-immobilised Heure, indicating Buffy and her past self as they stared at the red-skinned demon, Buffy seemingly almost unaware of her actions as she comforted her still-shaking past self despite her own evident shock at the current situation. "Which is why I'm offering you a simple deal; send her back-" he jerked a thumb at the younger Buffy as he spoke, "-and you leave here alive."

"Uh... really?" Heure said, looking uncertainly at Angel. "I mean, no offence, but you don't exactly have-"

"I'm working on changing that," Angel replied briefly, his arms folded as he stared at Heure, his tone making it clear that the situation wasn't up for debate. "You set up that ritual, and agree to allow us to monitor you afterwards to stop you from attempting something like this ever again, and you can live."

For a moment, Heure and Angel stared uncomfortably at each other, until Heure nodded in confirmation.

"All right," he said simply. "Just... let me get everything together-"

"Under Willow and Wesley's supervision," Buffy added, the witch and the ex-Watcher automatically walking towards the red-skinned demon. "If you try and slip a fast one on us, they're the best people qualified to know what you do and don't need for this to work."

"Uh... sure," Heure said, nodding with a grim expression that could have indicated dissatisfaction with that arrangement because he wasn't trusted or because he'd lost an opportunity to turn the tables on his enemies, before he simply shrugged and walked off towards the storage room, Willow and Wesley close behind him, leaving PastBuffy to look at Angel in shock.

* * *

"You're... you're sending me _back_?" she said, unable to conceal the evident hurt in her voice. "But... but I..."

"Buffy," Angel said, walking over to stand in front of her, sympathy clear on his face as he reached up to gently caress her cheek, "believe me, if I had a choice, I wouldn't do this, but you _have _to go back..."

"There's the whole 'temporal paradox' situation to take into account, after all," Fred suddenly said, looking urgently at PastBuffy, evidently recognising her comparatively superior knowledge of this field compared to the others present. "The consequences of you _not _going back to live out your life when you've already lived it could be _very _dangerous; we've escaped any signs of potential consequences to the present so far, but that doesn't mean we're going to stay that lucky for long-"

"In other words, if you _don't _go back we could end up with the world ending because you're not there to help us stop it," Xander said, walking forward slightly to better address the younger version of the world's oldest Slayer. "Trust me, we're all in agreement with Dead-Boy on that- and I can't believe I said that-; if any of us could get you away from what's coming up, we'd do it for you in a heartbeat, but-"

"You go all 'needs of the many' on me and I _will _punch you," PastBuffy interjected, narrowing her eyes slightly as she glared at him, her initial shock pushed aside in favour of a more focused anger. "Keep in mind that I'm still a _bit _angry at you for not mentioning the curse...."

"Check," Xander said, stepping back and raising his hands in an apologetic gesture just as Willow, Wesley and Heure left the storeroom, Heure moving to a clear area of the room before kneeling down and beginning to draw an elaborate circle on the ground, Wesley silently staring at Heure as Willow walked over to join the others, a slightly sad smile on her face.

"Well... he's doing it," she said, indicating Heure with a brief wave of her hand. "Actually, it's a bit simpler than the ritual he used to bring... Buffy... here; given that she's actually _meant _to be back there, all he needs to do is end the spell that brought her out of time and she should go back to where she's meant to go..."

"What, you mean like what you did when you stuck Xander back together?" Buffy asked, looking curiously at her friend.

"When she what?" her past self said, looking at Willow in confusion.

"Oh, this demon blasted Xander with a mystic weapon thing which made him split into two separate people representing varying extremes of his personality; I managed to put him back together just by ordering the spell to break," Willow answered, smiling briefly at her before a more apprehensive expression crossed her face. Uh... one thing; before you go, I… I'm going to need to wipe your memory."

PastBuffy blinked.

"Uh… what?" she said suspiciously.

"Gotta second that, Will," Buffy said, turning to look pointedly at her oldest friend; she might trust Willow in most magic-related matters, but the memory of what had happened the last time Willow had attempted a memory spell wouldn't go away that easily. "I mean, after the mess you made of that _last _time you tried it..."

"Look, it's not going to be _permanent_, and it's not like I'm doing this on impulse just to show I can _do_ it; it's just… well, you've seen what's going to happen to you in the next few years of your life," Willow said, looking apologetically between the two versions of her friend in front of her before her gaze settled on the younger one. "If we don't erase it _now_, there's no way of knowing how you'll react to stuff when you get back; what if you… I dunno, try and stop Angel leaving for L.A.? What if you can't fight Faith when she goes evil because you know she'll be back on your side later? What if you get reckless or careless in a dangerous fight because you think that you'll survive it because you met yourself _now_-?"

"Uh… right, gotcha; future memories, bad," PastBuffy said, nodding in uncertain understanding at Willow before she seemed to realise something. "What do you _mean_, it's 'not going to be permanent'?"

"Because _I'm _remembering them…" Buffy said, her voice low as realisation hit her as she looked over at Willow. "You're putting my- her- whatever, _our_- memories on a… time-release switch?"

"Basically, yeah," Willow confirmed with a nod. "I mean, I know when she's from, and I know when _you _started remembering things from this time frame; allowing for a few 'time-outs' when you're not actually... well, _conscious_, all I need to do is cast the spell so that it starts to restore your memories when you catch up with now- when she shows up in the present, you know-, and from there…"

She shrugged. "Well, it's a bit tricky, I know, but look on the bright side; we already _know _that it's going to work."

"Point…" PastBuffy said, smiling briefly at her friend before she glanced over at her future self and Angel. "Well… at least I know I'm giving it up for a _good _future."

"It's not always going to be smooth," Buffy said.

"Should be interesting, anyway," her past self replied, trying to sound nonchalant about the idea that she was about to forget everything that had happened to her over the last few days, before she sighed and nodded. "Well... let's do it."

"Right," Willow said, raising her hand to press it against PastBuffy's head and mumbling a few words under her breath, culminating in PastBuffy falling unconscious into Angel's arms, the now-ex-vampire looking anxiously at her.

"She'll be fine," Willow said, nodding reassuringly at her old ally. "It's just easier to have her be unconscious for this part; based on what I've heard about when she came from, she'd probably assume that she just... fell asleep for a bit on the bus or something."

"Sounds good," Buffy said, nodding gratefully at her old friend before turning back to look at Heure. "Well, are you ready now?"

"Of course," Heure confirmed, a slight swallow the only indication that he was feeling nervous as he sat down in the middle of the circle they'd put together, muttering various words in a language that Wesley was probably the only person present capable of understanding, culminating in PastBuffy vanishing into nothingness as the group watched.

"She's home," Heure said simply, looking up at the others with an anxious glance.

"Good," Angel said, indicating the door as he stared at the red-skinned demon. "Now... get out before I change my mind."

As Heure got up and left the room, Wesley turned to look at Angel.

"Are you sure about that?" he asked.

"Letting him go?" Angel replied, shrugging. "Not entirely, but I only just got my Shanshu; I'd rather not start jeopardising things by acting too ruthless."

"Try and be the good guy, huh?" Willow said, smiling briefly at Angel. "We've all been there sometimes; all we can do is go with the flow and hope-"

"OK," Spike said, breaking into Willow's sentence as he walked up to the edge of the shadows that protected him from the sunlight, glaring at where Angel still stood in the middle of the open beam as the now-ex-vampire stared at his non-burning hands, "now that we've got all that out of the way, I have one thing to say; how the _sodding Hell _did _you _get the _bloody SHANSHU_?"

"I earned it," Angel replied simply, looking up at Spike with a nonchalant smile.

"_HOW_?" Spike protested, looking in frustration at his sire. "I went and bloody _died _for the sodding _world_ after fighting through all _kinds _of tests to get my soul back-"

"That's the difference," Lorne said, the surprise of him speaking drawing the attention of everyone else in the room as he looked at Spike, offering the group's only remaining vampire a brief, sympathetic shrug. "You wanted to be this."

Spike blinked.

"Pardon?" he said uncertainly.

"Hey, I'm not saying you haven't done a good job since you got it," Lorne continued, waving a hand in a speculating manner as he spoke to make it clear that his current train of thought was only guesswork. "What I'm saying is that, based on what I heard, you mainly _got _the soul because you wanted to be something more than what you were before; Angelcakes got his soul as a punishment, and he's moved on a _lot _from that point-"

"Which has _what _to do with anything?" Spike asked in frustration.

"The fact that Angel rose _above _his original limits?" Gunn suggested.

"Uh... what?" Xander asked, turning to look at the former street fighter uncertainly. "What's anyone talking about?"

"Basically, the fact that Spike only got his soul for the single purpose of being more than he was, while Angel was meant to just become a mess," Lorne clarified, looking at the vampire with an apologetic smile. "You've done a good job, don't get me wrong, but you've only ever been what you asked to be; Angel's gone beyond the original reason he was given a soul in the first place, and he's become a _lot _more effective than what he started out as."

"Oh, it's the old 'the best candidate is the guy who doesn't want it' thing, huh?" Xander asked.

"Quite," Wesley said, nodding at Xander with a grim exasperation that the Scoobies recognised from Giles. "As always, you have trimmed a complicated theory down to its basic essentials to make it sound fundamentally stupid."

"Sorry to interrupt, but can we get back to the important factor of Angel being _human_ now?" Fred asked, raising a hand with a broad grin as she looked at the man who'd saved her life all those years ago in Pylea. "I mean... you _did _it! You got your Shanshu, saved the world, and got the girl!"

She paused as she turned to look at Buffy. "Uh... he _did _get the girl, right?"

"Get me?" Buffy replied, smiling as she walked up to wrap her arms around Angel, smiling up at the former Scourge of Europe with a broad grin. "Trust me; he's had me since I was sixteen."

With that, Buffy pulled Angel's head down to hers, their lips meeting in a deep, passionate kiss as the rest of the group simply watched, varying sizes of smile on their faces- Spike and Xander's smiles in particular were rather reluctant, even if they saw the sense in graciously accepting the way things were rather than protesting about them- at the sight of two of the most tragic lovers they'd ever known finally reunited.

It had been a long, hard, and seriously strange road to get here, but as they looked at the two people standing before them, lost in each other's arms, even Spike couldn't help but feel slightly touched (Even if jealousy was still the dominant emotion Spike felt about the whole mess).

_

* * *

_

Los Angeles outskirts, 1998

"Mmm... what?" Buffy muttered, blinking her eyes open as she glanced at her surroundings, noting with only a slight surprise that she was already approaching Los Angeles.

She must have dozed off after leaving Sunnydale; most likely the earlier adrenaline rush from trying to... stop Alcathla (She _couldn't _think about what else had had to be sacrificed to achieve that)... had finally worn off...

Buffy paused for a moment, suddenly lost in a vague memory of some kind of dream; flashes of a dark-haired Willow hovering in the air while two versions of Angel fought each other in brutal battle...

_NO_! Buffy thought, pushing those thoughts aside as swiftly as they had entered it.

She could never move on from that part of her life, but she would _not _keep thinking about it; this wasn't helping anyone right now.

She could never go back to the girl she'd been before...

But, as she walked out of the bus and back into the streets of the city that had once been her home, she knew, on a deeper, fundamental level than she'd ever known anything before, that she would always be Angel's girl...

And, until she could find a way to make a life without him in it, she had to be away from the memories of the life she'd had _with _him in it.

If only she could place why Los Angeles felt like it _wouldn't _be the right place to accomplish this...

Or, more importantly, why a part of her felt like this whole effort to get away from her past both would and _wouldn't _work out....


End file.
